How to build a sovereign and popular environmentalism
How does Argentina's debt negotiation with the International Monetary Fund affect environmental sovereignty?
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The world is heading toward an acceleration of irreversible ecosystem collapse. The responsibilities assumed by the international community regarding climate action do not result in measures compatible with the urgency of the crisis. In this context: How does Argentina's debt negotiation with the International Monetary Fund affect environmental sovereignty?
The opening of new hydrocarbon projects, the continued existence of fossil fuel subsidies, and the upward trend in oil and gas demand toward 2050 paint a discouraging picture. We are far from taking advantage of the last window of opportunity to limit the global average temperature increase to 1.5°C.
But if youth teach us anything, it's that structural changes are achieved through social mobilization and collective awareness. Never before has there been such overwhelming citizen involvement in the socio-environmental movement. Never before have marches unfolded that bring together thousands of communities simultaneously across the globe demanding climate justice. Of course, a world that overcomes the onslaught of the climate crisis cannot be achieved through utopia alone. It requires a program, organization, a sense of purpose, and activism.
Environmentalisms from the South
A process of industrial metamorphosis is necessary that introduces new production systems and consumption patterns.
Designing and implementing policies that promote ecological transition in an industrialized country is not the same exercise if we transfer the challenge to a semi-peripheral economy like ours. In our country, protecting natural commons and abandoning the energy support provided by hydrocarbon exploitation are goals that collide with the wall of macroeconomic instability and financial barriers.
This is the context for the debate sparked by the authorization of offshore 300 km off the coast of Mar del Plata.
The foundations of the discussion shed light on the internal aspects of environmentalism. I say environmentalism because just as there are popular, national, and Latin American environmentalisms, there are neoliberal and foreign ones.
Several campaigns launched against the offshore exploration project advocate for its complete closure. There is a multitude of arguments, ranging from concerns about the impact of seismic techniques on marine wildlife to skepticism about the economic benefits the venture promises.
What the debate illustrates is the deep distrust felt by a significant segment of the public in the role the state plays in promoting extractive economic activities and avoiding major environmental liabilities.
But the discrediting of the State's role in the development of oversight policies, while justified by observing cases of various events that led to environmental disasters, is a dangerous symptom for the current times. In several of these episodes, the destruction of ecosystems is the result of poor project management by the entities involved.
Civil society must demand the presence of the state, applying appropriate environmental regulations for each activity. Otherwise, companies will operate under lax regulatory frameworks, and our territories will multiply their sacrifice zones. Those who defend these concessions to private groups are part of a dogmatic and anti-sovereign developmentalism.
What the State does not manage is controlled exclusively by the market.
At the same time, pretending that the government's decision is to suspend all its export complexes due to environmental criteria is sheer nonsense. Aspiring to such a scenario in the context of the current economic crisis is downright irresponsible.
The oil exploitation agreement
The government's estimated economic return on the initiative is projected to generate between $30 billion and $95 billion in revenue for the state. Meanwhile, at the Mar del Plata well, 50% of the exports generated by the project will go to the state-owned company YPF as the owner.
In a country economically strangled by rising poverty and the constraints of foreign debt, it is not a viable path to demand an absolute ban on all productive activities based on natural resources. As an Argentine, I aspire to see my country increase its exports and stabilize its trade and fiscal balance.
But recognizing the importance of oversight cannot lead to underestimating the present and future needs imposed by the climate crisis.
The worsening of extreme weather events is having devastating consequences that our people are currently experiencing.
Rising temperatures, especially in cities, threaten the well-being of millions of people, especially those living in poor neighborhoods . Increased flooding and droughts will impact social and economic indicators. Neglecting climate and environmental action is not an option.
Faced with a shortage of resources
It's not because of the catastrophic situation described in scientific reports around the world, nor is it because we care about Argentina's geopolitical position. Market access is increasingly difficult for countries that fail to meet their international climate commitments or have a high carbon content in their exportable products.
It is imperative to advance along the path of decarbonization to ensure the future competitiveness of the Argentine economy. The agenda for the protection of natural resources also remains important, considering that the conservation of a Latin American country's natural heritage constitutes a strategic decision in the face of resource scarcity.
The responsibility of the powers
geopolitical integration under the umbrella of the climate crisis does not end with overcoming the economic barriers to the transition. As a nation of the global south, as activists for the great Latin American homeland, we cannot fail to denounce the responsibility of the central powers for the lack of international cooperation.
The Global North, in addition to failing miserably to transfer funds to developing economies (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Chapter V, Article 40), directs the international credit institutions that subjugate Argentina through debt. They want us to comply with the Paris Agreement, but they subject us to the deepening of the extractive matrix of our productive model to honor financial commitments made by neoliberal governments. The same powers that financially subordinate us are our environmental debtors. Enforcing recognition of our status as creditors of the North's ecological debt to the South must be consolidated as an unwavering strategy of international pressure at multilateral events on climate action, and the main demand of the Argentine socio-environmental movement.
A country deeply in debt will never be able to build local capacities that will allow it to achieve the socio-ecological transition. So, in addition to confronting the external agents who want to bring us to our knees, we must stop those within us who want to sell us out.
Hence the call for the construction of a national environmentalism.
A movement that defends the interests of the homeland against the neocolonial advance of financial powers, that puts an end to what they've always tried to do to us from the outside: dominate us and train the people through foreign debt.
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