The global climate conference in December 2019 was supposed to take place in Santiago de Chile. In the lead-up to the event the Chilean government published a draft climate change bill (“Anteproyecto de ley marco de cambio climatico”). A coalition of Chilean civil society organizations requested LRI to help with the review of the draft bill. Our analysis focused on whether and to what extent the draft law reflected provisions of the Paris Agreement and Rules.

The Chilean government submitted a revised draft bill to parliament on 10 January 2020. On Monday 27 January, the Environment and National Resources Commission of the Chilean Senate – the upper house of parliament – consulted 3 experts on the bill: The environment minister, Carolina Schmidt, Greenpeace’s Campaigns Director for Chile Estefanía González and the Chilean lawyer Monserrat Madariaga who leads the legal work of the civil society coalition that had requested LRI’s advice.

The advice formed part of the documents submitted by Ms Madariaga to members of the Commission. During her presentation she referred to specific aspects of the LRI analysis, including draft provisions concerning loss and damage, access to information and public participation. We were happy to help the Chilean civil society coalition and very much hope that our advice will contribute to an equitable law that promotes low carbon development but also effectively protects people from the adverse effect of climate change and supports their adaption efforts.