Peru's New President Will Lower Environmental Standards
Peru's New President Will Lower Environmental Standards
Published 14 July 2016 (6 hours 29 minutes ago)
Seventy percent of unresolved social conflicts in Peru are believed to be due to environmental issues related to extractive industries.
President elect Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, a former executive of a number of multinational corporations, announced Thursday he will seek to reduce environmental standards on metal refineries to boost the Peruvian economy. Kuczynski argued that current emission standards are too demanding, resulting in a lack of new foundries being built in the country.
Peru currently restricts sulfur dioxide emissions, a byproduct of smelting copper and other base metals. Such regulations are set by the Ministry of the Environment under control of the executive and do not need congressional approval for changes. Seventy percent of unresolved social conflicts in Peru are believed to be due to environmental issues related to extractive industries and a great deal of those result in violent confrontations.
“I believe that simply promoting the industrialization of the metals, mining exports can increase their value by 25 percent,” Kuczynski argued at an entrepreneurs meeting in Ica, in the south of Peru. He also claimed that Peru could become a regional hub for refining metals with the help of China and “the right environmental standards are needed because current ones are unrealistic.”
The mining business is the main source of foreign exchange for the country but investment in the sector has fallen with the drop in international commodity prices. Peru is the second largest exporter of copper in the world with 70 percent of those exports in raw format and 30 percent as purified metal.
More:
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Perus-New-President-Will-Lower-Environmental-Standards-20160714-0026.html
