Mass support for petition to protect Argentina glaciers from mining expansion

The amendment to the national Glacier Law relaxes restrictions on mining and oil activities in the areas surrounding glaciers.

This reform was spearheaded by Javier Milei, Argentina's climate-sceptic president, and by the authorities of mining provinces in the Andes, such as San Juan and Mendoza, which have their sights set on copper and lithium reserves.

From now on, these provinces will decide which areas should be protected from mining activity – and which should not.

Access to water

The environmental organisations, including the Environment and Natural Resources Foundation, the Argentine Association of Environmental Lawyers and Greenpeace, argue that the amendment jeopardises access to water for more than 7 million people.

The appeal was filed with the federal courts in the province of La Pampa, in the centre of the country – which relies on water supplies from the glaciers of its neighbours, the mining provinces of San Juan and Mendoza.

La Pampa governor Sergio Ziliotto is concerned that his province's rivers will dry up due to his neighbours' mining ambitions. His administration has filed a legal challenge to suspend the law's implementation, pending the Supreme Court's ruling on the merits of the case.

However, it is difficult to predict the court's decision, as Argentina is a federal state and the constitution stipulates that its provinces own their natural resources and may therefore use them as they see fit.

Preserving the planet's glaciers is a 'matter of survival' says UN

However, the constitution also stipulates that the federal government must set a minimum standard of environmental protection for the whole country – making the legal case a question of interpretation of the constitution.

The organisers of the class action suit claim the amendment to the law is unconstitutional, as it violates the principle of non-regression in environmental protection enshrined in international treaties signed by Argentina.

This article was adapted from the original version in French by RFI's correspondent in Buenos Aires, Théo Conscience.