Welcome to the Earth.Org Global Sustainability Index, where Earth.Org examines the policies and actions regarding the environment of every nation on earth. Combining the most respected global indexes on pollution, climate change, policy, energy, oceans, biodiversity we have produced an overall Global Index, which will be updated annually. This is the Global Sustainability Index scorecard for Argentina.
In late October 2019, Alberto Fernández was elected President, replacing Mauricio Macri in office, and it is uncertain how this will affect the country’s climate policy. President Fernández’ election platform included a vague section on environment and sustainable development, but it remains unclear how this will translate into policy.
Under former President Macri, Argentina showed significant progress in mitigating the climate crisis by adopting policies such as the “Biofuels Law,” the “Renewable Energy Law” and a carbon tax. In July 2019, Argentina declared a climate emergency and a draft Climate Change Law was passed. Macri also announced the goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, although the development of these policies is unclear given the change of government. However, there was also a push by parts of Macri’s government towards the exploitation of domestic fossil resources.
Argentina is currently going through an economic crisis, which, under the former government, resulted in changes in the structure of ministries with the objective of decreasing government spending. Whether there will be new changes under the new government remains to be seen.
- Despite updating their targets in 2016, Argentina has not renewed the effort for the 2019-2020 cycle and their efforts have been classified as “Highly Insufficient” by the Climate Action Tracker.
- Argentina has adopted new policies that impose a carbon tax on fossil fuels and promote renewable energy. They have also declared a state of climate emergency and set a goal of carbon neutrality by 2050.
- The recent election of Alberto Fernández has been accompanied by very vague plans concerning environment and sustainable development. If Argentina implements additional policies to increase low carbon energy sources, it could surpass its goals.
- It could just as easily not meet them if no additional action is taken
You might also like: Global Emissions (2016)
References:
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Biodiversity, Policy: Sachs, J., Schmidt-Traub, G., Kroll, C., Lafortune, G., Fuller, G. (2019): Sustainable Development Report 2019. New York: Bertelsmann Stiftung and Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN).
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Oceans: Halpern, Benjamin S., et al. “An index to assess the health and benefits of the global ocean.” Nature 488.7413 (2012): 615-620.
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Pollution: Wendling, Z. A., Emerson, J. W., Esty, D. C., Levy, M. A., de Sherbinin, A., et al. (2018). 2018 Environmental Performance Index. New Haven, CT: Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy. https://epi.yale.edu/
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Climate Change: Climate Change Performance Index; Jan Burck, Ursula Hagen, Niklas Höhne, Leonardo Nascimento, Christoph Bals, ISBN 978-3-943704-75-4, 2019
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Energy: Enerdata –World Energy Statistics – Yearbook.
World Energy Statistics
