‘Making Argentina great again’? What a year under a climate-change denying president has done for the country

Javier Milei’s push for extraction and cuts to land protections have left people fearing for their way of life – and environmentalists concerned about the future

Like many who follow Mapuche traditions in the Mendoza region of Argentina, Gabriel Jofré, 50, raises goats, moving between the plains in winter and the peaks of the Andes in summer, amid the region’s 4,000 glaciers. But the future of his people’s ancestral way of life is threatened, he says, by the climate crisis and plans for mining projects in the area.

In October, the local governor, Alfredo Cornejo, led the National Institute of Indigenous Affairs to reconsider the recognition of ancestral lands belonging to three Mapuche communities, potentially paving the way for the auction of public lands, 34 new copper exploration projects and the creation of the Malargüe western mining district.

The move comes on top of the national government’s decision to authorise the sale of federal lands, including in the Andes region.

“Climate change is already affecting us. If this type of activity advances, the impact will deepen,” says Jofré, adding that glacial decline and droughts have made it more challenging to work from traditional knowledge. “Our territories are an inseparable part of our identity and culture. They are our source of food and traditional medicine.”

Cornejo is an ally of the Argentine president, Javier Milei, who has previously dismissed the climate crisis as a “socialist lie” and believes that the environment should be at the service of the economy in a country where more than half the population lives in poverty.

The push towards mining is just one of the impacts of Milei’s first year in office. In November, Argentina withdrew its negotiators from the Cop29 climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan. For now, the country remains in the Paris agreement, the international treaty that aims to limit global warming to 1.5C compared with pre-industrial levels.

Since taking office, Milei has radically shrunk the size of the state, including downgrading the environment ministry to an under-secretariat, while budgets for environmental protection have been reduced.

His “omnibus” reform law, a behemoth consisting of 664 articles aimed at completely redrawing the legislature, included provisions to tear up the laws protecting glaciers and forests. The law was debated for months, during which both provisions were removed, but campaigners fear environmental protections will not stay off the chopping block for long.

The package, however, features the Incentive Regime for Large Investments (Rigi), a policy designed to exploit the country’s extensive natural resources. Argentina has the world’s second-largest source of shale gas, in a Patagonia field known as Vaca Muerta (meaning dead cow), and a fifth of the planet’s lithium. Oil exploration is also taking place off its coast.

Marcelo García, an analyst at consultancy firm Horizon Engage says Rigi is an attempt to speed up investment in natural resources, in line with Milei’s vision of economic development. “Of course, in terms of the environment, that has an indirect impact,” he adds.

Environmentalists fear the policy may significantly impact conservation by offering tax incentives to major investors in critical sectors such as mining, oil and gas, while environmental laws are weakened.

Manuel Jaramillo, general director at the Argentine Wildlife Foundation, says the attempt to abolish environmental laws “showed the direction of [Milei’s] political project”.

Pia Marchegiani, deputy executive director of the Environment and Natural Resources Foundation, says Milei has already stated that his government will send new proposals to change environmental regulations to Congress. “His idea is that the state should be as small as possible with an extreme free-market approach,” she says.

Rigi makes Argentina the “most open for investment” country in South America’s lithium triangle, but at the cost of lax regulations, Marchegiani adds.

“The national agency is very weak and power lies with the provinces, which are smaller and highly dependent on royalties from the mining sector,” she says. “Milei’s environmental policy ignores the scientific evidence of the triple environmental crisis. It also squanders the opportunity to transform the production and consumption model, an effort that much of the world is undertaking.”

The consequences of Milei’s policies are already visible throughout the country. Argentina has a federal system with much power resting with its provinces. Milei required state governors to pledge allegiance to his goals by signing the May pact, which commits provinces to the “exploitation of the country’s natural resources”.

Eduardo Sosa, a former chief of staff at Mendoza’s environment ministry, says the situation has “worsened considerably” since Milei’s election, and the cumulative impact of exploration could be “very significant”.

“The glaciers could be affected by the mining activities, by the opening of new access roads, by the consumption of water for exploration work, and by the suspended dust that could be deposited on the ice and accelerate its melting,” Sosa says.

The Mendoza government did not respond to a request for comment.

At the council meeting that approved exploration, Hebe Casado, vice-governor of Mendoza, said it would create “new opportunities for many people, especially in areas that have long sought economic growth”. She also argued that the provincial government acted with “transparency” and “responsibility” and that companies must submit new environmental impact assessments to ensure high environmental standards.

For most Argentines, environmental protection is unlikely to rank among their priorities. When Milei took charge, the country was experiencing one of the worst financial crises in the world, with inflation hitting nearly 300%. Inflation has fallen, but poverty and unemployment have increased. In November, an Ipsos poll found just 4% of Argentines put the climate crisis as their main worry, while 49% cited unemployment and 45% poverty and inequality as their chief concerns.

“There is no real public debate on this issue,” García says. “As a result of the many decades of economic upheavals in the country, the environment is as little an issue as I have seen in my lifetime.”

Sosa says that Milei’s “libertarian wave” has changed the terms of debate, including free discussion of “eliminating all traces of environmentalism”. “In previous years, this would have faced social condemnation and even political backlash,” he says.

Another wildcard is the election of Donald Trump in the US, with whom Milei has enjoyed a good relationship. The US president-elect utilised his own catchphrase when telling Milei to “make Argentina great again”.

However, Milei is likely to be limited by his pragmatism and economic reality, García says. While Rigi has certainly piqued international investors’ interest, most are waiting to see whether currency restrictions will be lifted before piling in. “I think 2025 will be an important year,” he says.

García also points out that while Milei has cultivated a “firebrand” persona, he has acted pragmatically when push comes to shove – and that could affect his decisions about the environment. “If you walk out of the Paris agreement, then some private companies will have trouble investing in Argentina,” he says.

“He has limited his actions in a very pragmatic way when it could be harmful to his ultimate agenda of surviving as president.”

Cover photo: Concerns have been voiced that the country’s glaciers could be affected by mining activity. Photograph: Rodrigo Valle/Getty Images