Student: Alex Groher-Jick
Graduation date: May 2018
Capstone type: Thesis
Capstone project:
Neocolonial Nature of Sustainable Development in Chile
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The COP21 Paris Climate agreement was lauded as a major success for international sustainable development by many environmental activists the world over, yet some argue that there are major flaws in the landmark accord pertaining to feasibility and equitability. The agreement grants autonomy to nations by allowing them to set their own Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs), so it is imperative that national policies be examined as they hold much of the power under the Cop21 climate agreement. I examine the INDC of Chile, Latin America’s poster-child for neoliberalism, given its position as a developing nation of the global South and its recent adoption of sustainable development reforms. Through a rhetorical analysis of the agreement and Chile’s INDC as well as various Chilean media sources, I suggest that besides issues of international equity in the agreement, there is a severe lack of prosocial considerations on the subnational scale which have the potential to be highly harmful. In Chile, these arise, in particular, in relation to indigenous populations.