In Peru’s presidential elections last week, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski won in a neck-and-neck vote against his opponent Keiko Fujimori. Before the runoff election last week, Fujimori was expected to win despite the fact her father, former president Alberto Fujimori, was imprisoned in 2009 on the basis of human rights violations and corruption. Both candidates prioritized business and economic growth, but in light of Peru’s vulnerability to climate change, Kuczynski will be responsible in upcoming years for Peru’s plan to protect the environment and mitigate climate change.
The 77-year-old Kuczynski was a former economist for the World Bank and worked on Wall Street, with particular expertise in the mining and extraction industries. In the early 2000s, he worked with former president Alejandro Toledo to pass legislation on export contracts of natural gas in Peru’s Camisea gas fields. Extracting gas and keeping much of it in Peru kept electricity costs low in comparison to the rest of the region, and in 2014, oil companies expanded projects. There were serious concerns that the oil companies would threaten the lives of indigenous communities — much of the fields are located on the Kugapakori-Nahua-Nanti reserve — and pollute the rivers as seen in northern Peru. The Amazon already faces frequent oil spills, one as recent as February.
Peruvian Oil Spill Prompts Water Emergency For ThousandsCREDIT: Shutterstock Thousands of residents in the northern Peruvian jungle are facing a water quality emergency…thinkprogress.orgActivists fighting environmental damage in the Amazon face not only policy barriers but also physical violence from illegal loggers — a quadruple murder made headlines in September 2014. That same year, the U.N. climate change conference was held in Lima, where the groundwork was laid for the climate agreement reached in Paris late last year.
Kucyzynski’s predecessor, Ollanta Humala, was active in international climate talks and proposed a responsible forest management plan to combat climate change. Humala also warned about significant drops in GDP Peru was likely to see from the worst impacts of climate change. Yet he rolled back pollution standards and boosted energy and mining projects in pursuit of foreign and domestic investment.
Kuczynski’s environmental plan seems to recognize how vulnerable Peru is to climate change and environmental damage, listing a 30 percent decrease in Andean mountain snow accumulation in the 20th century, areas where mosquito borne illnesses are increasing, and changes in precipitation cycles and water levels in the Amazon.
Despite this, there is no extensive language on mitigating climate change other than an intention to create a law with clear goals on mitigating climate change by 2017. His heavy involvement in the promotion of natural gas and plans to halt delays on mine projects threaten to overshadow the positive aspects of his proposals.
Another environmental threat is gold mining. In Madre de Dios, mercury used during the purification process has polluted the rivers and affected the health of people. Kuczynski has no plan to end gold mining. Instead, he wants to implement a program oro limpio — clean gold — by 2021 to reduce illegal mining and enforce standards on informal miners. It’s disputed if clean gold mining is possible, with arguments saying gold’s increasing scarcity only make the process of mining dirtier and others saying with enough regulations, it’s possible.
One positive aspect of his plan is a proposed remediation of over 370,000 acres of land, including around a third in Madre de Dios. The plan includes reforesting over 8.5 million acres between the Andes and Amazonian regions, intended to counteract deforestation, but Kuczynski also plans to increase timber exports 60 percent by 2021. His reforestation plan could be promising, but maintaining the mining industry and boosting timber exports both threaten to counteract any progress made there.
Gold Mining Has Devastated The Peruvian AmazonCREDIT: When Meraldo Umiña moved to the Madre De Dios region of Peru in 1983, the toxic gold rush that’s destroyed…thinkprogress.orgOther proposals include starting a new program which promotes sustainability and using recycled goods in products, ensuring all regions have adequately functioning solid waste management systems, and gathering geo-referenced data on water resources and quality.
Kuczynski’s environmental plan may have some high notes, but falls short on details of the regulations to protect local communities and their lands from mining and logging. His history of involvement in the Camisea gas fields suggests there will be no slowdown in that industry and gas isn’t highlighted in the plan either. Only time will tell whether or not the law he plans to pass next year will include an effective, detailed plan to mitigate and adapt to climate change.