Chile: Presidential Debate to Tackle Climate Crisis

On Monday, five Chilean presidential candidates will debate topics such as education, culture, and sustainable development. The event will take place at the University of Chile and is promoted by 20 youth organizations among which are Chile Youth, Escazu Now, and the CON-CIENCIA community.

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The “It’s the Planet's Turn” event will be attended by canditates Gabriel Boric (Approve Dignity), Yasna Provoste (New Social Pact), Eduardo Artes (Patriotic Union), Sebastian Sichel (We Can Do More Chile), and Marco Ominami (Progressive Party). Franco Parisi (Peoples' Party) and Jose Kast (Republican Party) will not attend the debate, which is promoted by students that criticize past debates for ignoring issues that affect the future of the Chilean youth.

“According to the latest United Nations report, the climate crisis will destroy 43 percent of Chile’s vegetation. We need to know how the candidates plan to address these problems”, said Nicolas Riquelme.

Two professionals with extensive experience in environmental issues will lead the event: Felipe Gerdtzen, journalist and TV host of environmental-oriented shows, and Andrea Obaid environmental journalist. The youth organizations that called for this initiative will be the ones preparing the questions.

This will be the candidate's penultimate opportunity to address the citizens before the November 21 elections. Previous debates have seen hostility between the candidates on topics such as economy, migration policy, and the Pandora Papers. However public policies have not played a leading role in their discussions.

“On Oct. 12, we witnessed once again a presidential debate where topics such as climate crisis, environmental justice, infancy, and youth protection policies were absent. That is why we decided to arrange the first presidential debate organized by and for the youth”, Escazu Now Chairman Sebastian Benfeld said.

Local and national news will cover and report on the debate. It will be transmitted by the official University channel and on social media.