Chile is planning to rewrite its constitution. Climate change will play a MAJOR role

If the environment was a person, what do you think it would have said about your country, its democracy and the fundamental rights, that every citizen protects with their might? Now, a South American country, Chile, is asking similar questions – does nature have its own rights?

Chile has got a rare opportunity to overhaul its entire constitution; to rewrite the constitution. And it has one of the most trending topics of our day and age – climate change – at the centre of the discussion. 

The country has quite a bit of stake in its environment. The mining industry forms one of the pillars of the Chilean economy. The country became rich on the back of its mining and export activity, and lithium is the fulcrum of this economy.

Chile is the world’s largest supplier of lithium carbonate, used in lithium batteries. Your mobile phones, eco-friendly electric vehicles all use lithium batteries. And in the carbon-neutral future, these batteries will be high in demand. But Chile has to pay an environmental price for mining lithium for the so-called ‘eco-friendly’ devices.

So, now it is deciding to redefine itself as a country with the impact of its environmental exploits at the heart of discussions.  

HOW DID CHILE REACH THE POINT OF REDRAFTING ITS CONSTITUTION?

The South American nation is scrapping a 1980s' dictator-era constitution to bring in a new one. The 1980s constitution was drafted by the then-dictator of the country Augusto Pinochet, who ruled with terror from 1973 till 1990.

The dictator-era constitution gave a lot of might to the private sector. For example, water right, a basic necessity, was deemed private property, enabling the private sector to buy and sell water bodies. With the country suffering from decades of unequal distribution of natural resources among the masses, water features prominently in the constitution’s discussion.

In 2019, the country witnessed one of the worst and deadly protests over the rising inequality in the economically rich country. Though Chile has seen an economic boom since the freeing up of the private sector, it has also become one of the world’s most unequal nations.

One of the demands of the 2019 protests was to scrap the dictator-era constitution, thought to be the root cause of all problems. And so in July 2021, a 155-member panel, made of a diverse number of people including 50% women and indigenous people, was elected to rewrite the constitution.

HOW DOES CHILE PLAN TO INCLUDE CLIMATE CHANGE IN THE CONSTITUTION?

Chile’s constitutional convention members will decide how to regulate the country’s mining activities, what power local communities will hold, and how much environmental damage is enough to live without destruction.

It will also decide on who will own the water bodies in Chile, given that the previous constitution referred to it as private property. More importantly, it also seeks to ‘define’ water.

A New York Times report explained the mining economy of Chile. In northern Chile’s Atacama desert, lies ‘brine’ underground. Brine is salt water that contains large deposits of magnesium, potassium and powdery lithium carbonate. Mining companies dig out the brine and transfer it to the ponds nearby.

The Atacama has some of the world’s highest solar radiation on Earth, so the sun is tasked to evaporate the water from the ponds. Water evaporates at a dizzying pace here. And what is left in the ponds are the minerals.

But the expansion of the mining activities is leading to the drying up of the area, inhabited by indigenous communities.

So one of the questions the convention will answer is whether ‘brine’ is water or not. Currently, brine extraction is governed by the mining code. If it is defined as water, it might become harder to mine. On the other hand, mining industries claim brine is not fit for human or animal consumption.

Besides this, the mining industry in Chile is also bracing for changes to the laws. With new President-elect Gabriel Boric promising to increase mining royalties and taxes, the industry is headed for a change.

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

There are laws and policies in the world to tackle the 21st-century climate change crisis. But laws and policies only outline how people should behave.

The constitution, on the other hand, sets a limit for the government on how it can rule the people and the land. It defines how a country should be governed and is written by the people and for the people.

So moulding a constitution to suit a climate-change era can give more rights to the environment. And nature could become an integral part of democracy, instead of just an afterthought.

Chile is already discussing bringing climate change to the centre of the constitution. The new constitution is expected to be submitted to a referendum in 2022. 

Will the world also take a cue from Chile to consider the impacts of climate change into their constitutions?