Delayed and Approved: A Quantitative Study of Conflicts and the Environmental Impact Assessments of Energy Projects in Chile 2012–2017

Abstract

The Sistema de Evaluación de Impacto Ambiental (Environmental Impact Assessment System—SEIA) evaluates all projects potentially harmful to human health and the environment in Chile. Since its establishment, many projects approved by the SEIA have been contested by organized communities, especially in the energy sector. The question guiding our research is whether socio-environmental conflicts affect the evaluation times and the approval rates of projects under assessment. Using a novel database comprising all energy projects assessed by the SEIA, we analyzed 380 energy projects that entered the SEIA review process between 2012 and 2017 and matched these projects with protest events. Using linear and logit regression, we find no association between the occurrence of protests aimed at specific projects and the probability of project approval. We do, however, find that projects associated with the occurrence of protest events experience significantly longer review times. To assess the robustness of this finding, we compare two run-of-river plants proposed in Mapuche territory in Chile’s La Araucanía region. We discuss the broader implications of these findings for sustainable environmental decision making.

Understanding Conditioning Factors for Hydroelectric Development in Chile: Bases for Community Acceptance

“…During that decade, the first signs of high-profile conflicts in Chile started to emerge, which led to confrontations between communities and the hydroelectric industry [6]. On occasion, the new complexity of the situation has produced important delays in original investment plans and has, in some cases, led to projects being abandoned [5][6][7]. This situation is evident throughout the national territory, but is especially relevant in the southern region of Chile, where hydroelectric potential tends to coincide with (i) natural areas that are highly valued locally, nationally, and internationally due to their landscape, biodiversity, and cultural value [28,29], and (ii) areas in which the interests of indigenous people and local communities are strongly represented [8,27,[30][31][32].…”

“…As the first factor, we identified a tendency related to the lack of validation of a formal participatory process, in terms of both its form and timing, and of its scope regarding the real influence of citizens in the final decision. In the current participatory process, companies design projects and propose them to the Environmental Assessment Service, a government agency responsible for environmental evaluation of investment initiatives, in most cases before consulting with local actors [7,24,56]. In this regard, communities are unsatisfied with the process, since it is conducted close to the final planning stages and "when everything is already decided".…”

“…Hence, many projects lack sociopolitical acceptance in the broader context of opposition to policies that promote the implementation of renewable energies, apart from a specific project. Local communities cannot influence the EAS's decisions regarding project implementation, and their participation is limited to influencing some of the project's characteristics and claiming certain compensation if they are affected [7,24,57]. On the other hand, the ambiguity existing in the Chilean legislation that supports the implementation of free, prior, and informed consent (in the context of ILO Convention 169) has contributed to the fragmentation of local communities and the "commodification" of consent, limiting its practical applicability to protecting the rights of Mapuche-Williche communities and increasing distrust in the participatory process [49].…”

“…Within the forms of renewable energy, hydroelectricity is considered key and aims to attain a share of 20-25% by 2030 [3]. However, the emergence of social conflict as a result of opposition to infrastructure projects for these energy sources, especially among local communities, has slowed down or even stopped this process [4][5][6][7]. It is in this context that, in recent years, increasing attention has been paid to the social dimension of developing renewable energy projects in order to identify and understand the main factors that condition the level of acceptance by local communities [4,8,9].…”