Governance in energy project evaluation in El SEIA, Chile

Abstract

In Chile, citizen participation is voluntary during the environmental assessment of energy projects processed through an Environmental Impact Statement, as are those commitments or measures complementary to those required by current environmental regulations. The present study focuses on determining whether governance dynamics are expressed among private actors, communities and municipalities, which in a project evaluation context could lead to the adoption of voluntary commitments. The unit of analysis corresponds to the Environmental Qualification Resolutions and evaluation files of each project, from 2013 to 2019. Among the main results, there is a significant presence of voluntary environmental commitments, which, however, mostly respond to factors unrelated to a link between actors. It is concluded that in the context of the SEIA, the mere participation of stakeholders during the environmental assessment does not ensure an articulation between them, so there are no significant expressions of governance.