Argentina

The Argentinian Congress aproved in December 2019 a Law on minimum assumptions for adaptation and mitigation on Climate Change, this law contains general comitments with CO2 emissions reduction and adaptation to climate change. The National Secretariat for the Environment and Sustainable Development presented in November 2019 the first National Plan for Adaptation and Mitigation to Climate Change that aims to advance in the fulfillment of the objectives assumed in the Paris Agreement, and the National Action Plans Sectorial Energy, Transport, Agriculture, Industry, Health, Infrastructure and Territory and Forests. However, these documents have a good caraterization of the problem, of the country risk, of the international standars even some measures on how to adapt but no clear policies/commitments on the mitigation side. Only a general commitment on the absolute goal assumed: "not to exceed the net emission of 483 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e) in the year 2030" Moreover, it is not clear if this Plan (and the sectorial plans) are still in place after the change of Goverment. Links in the website to the documents are not aliver anymore (they are only alive in caché). In relation to the long-term strategy to 2050, there are only plans to begin to work on it. Last but not least, it's important to take into account what the Climate Action Tracker sais: "On 10 December 2019, Alberto Fernández was sworn in as the President of Argentina, replacing Mauricio Macri. The new government has mainly focused its policy efforts on addressing the economic crisis that pre-dates the pandemic but has been exacerbated by it, putting further climate policy developments into jeopardy. The recovery measures taken by the government as of June 2020 aim to protect the oil and gas industry from collapsing prices and demand, while ‘green’ recovery measures remain largely absent in current proposals." "In July 2019, the Macri government declared a climate emergency followed by the Senate passing a Climate Change Law in December 2019. The law positioned the treatment of climate change as national policy, institutionalised the articulation of activities and responsibilities related to climate change, and established minimum financial budgets for its adequate management, including the design and implementation of mitigation and adaptation policies. Macri announced the goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. However, the recent change in government brings uncertainty around the implementation of these policies."

Argentina has a public consultation mechanism in place, however, there is no evidence that these consultations are done in a sistematic way, the number of people participating in the processes is really small. On the other side, the gender perspective is included in the Open Government Plan and Argentina prepared the 2018 and 2019 budgets with a gender perspective. No indication of employee involvement in corporate governance in private sector.

The government carried out some activities with the private business sector to promote SDGs (page 50 of the VNR2020). These activities are very limited. Beside this, the Argentinian Global Compact network is very active, but no further guvermental initiatives for engaging the private sector on SDGs were found.

No information about this was found.

The National Securities Commission (CNV) of Argentina made available (January 2021) to the public the Guide for Socially Responsible Investment in the Argentinean Capital Market, the Guide for the Issuance of Social, Green and Sustainable Bonds and the Guide for External Evaluators of Social, Green and Sustainable Bonds. Morever, 20 Argentine banks signed a Sustainable Finance Protocol committing themselves to create financial products and services to finance projects with positive environmental and social impact and to optimize risk analysis systems with an environmental and social focus. However, none of this is a green financial reform from the government.

The National Contracting Office, as the Governing Body of the Contracting System of the National Public Administration in Argentina, in cooperation with governmental and non-governmental entities, began to work on Sustainable Public Procurement in 2010. However, there is no evidence of a political commitment to public purchase with sustainability criteria. There are no more evidence of fiscal meassures beyond the carbon tax explained in the "pricing carbon" section.

The Central Bank of the Argentine Republic prepared in 2018 a document to guide the development of stress tests in the financial system. This guide does not incorporate environmental or social issues. The implementation of the stress tests and the choice of the methodology are left to the financial institutions.

In 2017, Argentina passed Law 27,430 on Tax Reform, which introduced the carbon tax into the national tax system. As for Trading schemes: Argentina has registered 46 projects under the UNFCCC CDM (Clean Development Mecanism), 18 of which have issued Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) reaching around 16 billion CERs. Argentine companies have also participated in voluntary markets, registering 6 projects in the Verified Carbon Standard, of which 5 have issued bonds.

The GOVERNMENT SECRETARIAT FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT approved in 2019 Resolution 447/2019, which prepared the National Plan for Adaptation and Mitigation to Climate Change. The purpose of this Plan was to advance in the fulfillment of the objectives assumed in the Paris Agreement, and included the National Sectoral Action Plans in the sectors of Energy, Transport, Agro, Industry, Health, Infrastructure and Territory and Forests. All of them annexes to the Resolution itself. Sector plans are dynamic and constantly evolving documents. The sector plans contain the climate change strategy of each government agency, according to its competence. They also contain the roadmaps for each of the mitigation and adaptation measures contemplated in the plans. However, the recent change in government brings uncertainty around the implementation of these policies.

Argentina has a National Institute of Associativism and Social Economy (INAES) under the Ministry of Productive Development whose mission is to train and advise cooperatives and small businesses. There are some intitatives linked to the adoption of green business models but not in a systematic way. In 2019, the National Government, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Foreign Trade and Investment Bank (BICE) agreed to a loan for USD 160 million destined to promote renewable energy and energy efficiency projects for small and medium-sized companies. Moreover, the Government of Argentina has a program that gives access to advice for people who have a solution for a social, environmental or economic problem or enterprises that have up to 4 years of activity that solve a social, environmental or economic problem.

Argentina’s NDC, submitted in 2016, includes two absolute emissions reduction targets for 2030: the unconditional target limits emissions to 483 MtCO2e in 2030 including LULUCF ; the conditional target, including LULUCF, limits emissions to 369 MtCO2e in 2030. However, there is no evidence of evidence of any budgeting proposal under discussion. Argentina has centred its energy sector strategy around the exploitation of abundant gas reserves in the “Vaca Muerta” formation as a source of cheap oil and gas for national consumption and exports

The Argentine government has a Program for the supply of electricity from renewable sources: RenovAr. The Sub-Secretariat of Energy Planning in 2019, assume an increase of Argentina’s renewable energy capacity of 12–18 GW by 2030, compared to only 4.7 GW that has been contracted under the renewable auctioning scheme RenovAr as of June 2020.

In April 2021, the "Promote Green Employment" program was presented. This program is a line of the "Work Enhancement Program" of the Ministry of Social Development that turns social plans into active work. It aims to finance productive initiatives adapted to sustainable practices. Likewise, it seeks to generate new jobs that contribute to the environment and sustainable development. However, it is not clear the scope of the program, it seems to be a municipal program to be extended to others. Moreover, the Government has developed a "detection of training needs in green employment" initiative. In the National Plan for Adaptation and Mitigation to Climate Change there is an identification of employement as one of the problems to deal with in the transition. However there is no specific meassures to put in place.

Argentina has programs to combat poverty and inequalities but no actions have been found that contemplate that vulnerable populations will have a "green transition".

The government of Argentina has a system for the "Participatory Elaboration of Norms". It also has an Open Government system with a section for Citizen Participation. However there is no evidence of consultation with local communities and marginalised groups at all.

In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government of Argentina created the "Emergency Family Income": a social insurance that was given to informal workers. It consisted of a bond of 10,000 Argentine pesos. Since 2009, Argentina has a "Universal Child Allowance" a monthly allowance for each child under 18 years of age. It is charged by only one of the parents prioritizing the mother. However, there is no a clear strategic approach.

In the 2020 VNR the government of Argentina explains its strategy to achieve SDG 14 and 15, however it only contains some targets, the rest remain outstanding. Argentina also has a National Biodiversity Strategy however it ended in 2020 and no actualization was found. The government also has a website with thosough information on conservation strategies however, again, no clear targets were found.

There is some discussion around the concept but there is nothing that indicates that Argentina will develop a program in this regard in the coming years.

There is no information publicly available about the creation of such a body.

In January 2018, Argentina implemented a carbon tax covering most liquid and solid fuels sold in Argentina, based on a price of 10 USD/tCO2e. In January 2019, the tax also became operational for fuel oil, mineral coal, and petroleum coke, at 10% of the full tax rate, with an annual increase of 10 percentage points until reaching 100% in 2028. The tax is estimated to cover 20% of the country’s GHG emissions. Natural gas is exempted from the tax, as is CNG and fuel consumption in international aviation and shipping, as well as the export of these fuels.