Chile advances reform of environmental impact assessment system

President José Antonio Kast chaired a meeting in which the government presented a reform of the Sistema de Evaluación de Impacto Ambiental (SEIA). The proposal seeks to speed up decisions, strengthen technical analysis, and provide greater legal certainty by setting mandatory deadlines, unifying the environmental appeal process and allowing third‑party claims. The reform also proposes to keep the Committee of Ministers and the Environmental Evaluation Commissions, but to reduce their membership and regulate their operation.

Environment Minister Francisca Toledo highlighted that the SEIA reform has been under discussion for a decade and called the current draft a missed opportunity. She argued that the process should separate political decisions on project viability from technical environmental assessments, requiring a more ambitious legislative design than the one currently debated in the Chamber of Deputies.