Senate approves Milei plan to roll back glacier protections
Feb 28th 2026
Argentina's Senate gave initial approval to a Milei-backed rewrite of the 2010 Glacier Law that narrows protected areas and hands provinces the power to greenlight mining and hydrocarbons, with the bill now headed to the lower house.
- Senate voted 40 to 31 with one abstention and the bill now moves to the Chamber of Deputies.
- The reform narrows protections to formations deemed "strategic water reserves" only.
- Provincial governments will decide which glaciers stay protected and can authorize mining and hydrocarbons after environmental impact assessments.
- The government says the changes could unlock more than US$40 billion in investment and has backing from Andean provincial governors.
- Environmental groups say the bill weakens national safeguards and risks long-term water security.
- Greenpeace protesters were detained outside Congress and a TV cameraman was injured during a police intervention.
- The law keeps a ban on economic activity on glaciers themselves but opens many periglacial areas to development and creates a National Glacier Inventory compiled by IANIGLA.