translated from Spanish: Chamber expresses concern and rejection of the government’s eagerness to approve dominga mining project

The Chamber of Deputies approved by 90 votes in favor a draft resolution, presented by the PPD and Independents bloc, in which it expresses its concern and rejection of the decision of the Environmental Assessment Commission of the Coquimbo Region to hold an extraordinary session and approve the Dominga Project.
The text also establishes the concern raised within the framework of the Environmental Impact Assessment System, without considering the context of the climate crisis in which the planet finds itself and the weakness of environmental institutions.
Deputy Cristina Girardi, author of the bill, pointed out that “the draft agreement that we presented with 90 votes and where many unfortunately abstained has to do with the COEVA resolution to approve Dominga when it had already been rejected, with an appeal pending, which is irregular.”
“In addition, the Conaf issued reports that are absolutely contrary to the realization of the project and the Agriculture Seremi never presented the conaf’s background in the resolution council that ended up approving the project.”
Likewise, Girardi said that “the project is approved a few days after the IPCC report is issued, posing a catastrophic situation with respect to climate change and that urges countries to make decisions that are favorable to the environment and not unfavorable, such as the Dominga project.”
“We are also going to resort to other legal instances, because we think this decision by COEVA to approve a project under these conditions is total rudeness. Here one can speculate that here the interests of the owners of these projects are being protected over the environment. What has interested the Environmental Assessment Service and COEVA is to defend the private sector and not the environment,” he added.
For his part, ppd deputy and president of the Environment Committee, Ricardo Celis, said that “reviewing the Dominga project again, despite the rejection at the time by the Council of Ministers and pending judicial appeals, is a terrible sign of political-economic power, where the economic is privileged in a misunderstood of the climate emergency.”
The parliamentarian added that “this is bad news for a protected area, for the region and for the planet.”
The initiative had the signatures of PPD deputies Cristina Girardi, Carolina Marzán, Andrea Parra, Patricia Rubio, Rodrigo González, Ricardo Celis, Raúl Soto, Tucapel Jiménez and the independent René Alinco.

Original source in Spanish