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Liberal Hemoglobin Thresholds as a Transfusion Trigger
50 for serious infections
In Summary, for those who received transfusions with a liberal transfusion threshold:
None were helped by any measurable outcome, including death
None were helped (mortality or any other measurable outcome)
2% were harmed by serious infection
1 in 50 were harmed (death*)
1 in 50 were harmed (serious infection)
Source: Carson JL, Carless PA, Hebert PC. Transfusion thresholds and other strategies for guiding allogeneic red blood cell transfusion. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2012;4:CD002042.
Holst LB, Petersen MW, Haase N, Perner A, Wetterslev J. Restrictive versus liberal transfusion strategy for red blood cell transfusion: systematic review of randomised trials with meta-analysis and trial sequential analysis. BMJ. 2015;350:h1354.
Rohde JM, Dimcheff DE, Blumberg N, et al. Health care-associated infection after red blood cell transfusion: a systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA. 2014;311(13):1317-26.
Villanueva C, Colomo A, Bosch A, et al. Transfusion strategies for acute upper gastrointestinal bleeding. N Engl J Med. 2013;368(1):11-21.
De almeida JP, Vincent JL, Galas FR, et al. Transfusion requirements in surgical oncology patients: a prospective, randomized controlled trial. Anesthesiology. 2015;122(1):29-38.
Efficacy Endpoints: Mortality, functional status, ischemic events, hospital length of stay
Harm Endpoints: Mortality, serious infections, rebleeding
Narrative: Transfusion of red blood cells (rbc) occurred roughly 14 million times in the U.S. in 2011. [Whitaker BI, Hinkins S. The 2011 national blood collection and utilization survey.http://www.bloodsurvey.org. Accessed 4/10/2015]. While rbc transfusion is traditionally utilized in emergent settings of shock due to acute blood loss, its use outside of this context has been increasingly challenged based largely on an unclear ratio of benefits to harms. In recent years new research efforts have been undertaken, typically comparing Hb thresholds labeled 'liberal' (Hb=9 mg/dL or above) to those labeled 'conservative' (usually Hb=7-7.5 or below).
The Cochrane Collaboration review summarized here attempts to determine outcome differences between liberal and conservative thresholds in 19 clinical trials of more than 6000 subjects (nearly quadruple the number in the 2010 Cochrane review of the same topic) with acute or worsening anemia in association with a broad spectrum of medical and surgical conditions.(1)[Cochrane, 2012] A second, updated, larger and more inclusive review examined for this summary reports on nearly 10000 subjects from 31 studies.(2)[BMJ, 2015]
Ultimately, based on (necessarily) non-blinded trials of medium overall quality the investigators find no identifiable or measurable benefits to a liberal transfusion threshold. Most notably, the Cochrane authors do identify a clinically important increase in deaths among the groups assigned to a liberal strategy, although the statistical significance of this finding varies with the mortality endpoint used. While 'hospital mortality' is higher in the liberal threshold groups, 30-day- and overall mortality are both statistically borderline, with each outcome using a different denominator of subjects due to variable reporting of outcome measures. In the larger, more inclusive review mortality is unchanged, but again remains borderline.
In addition, the authors note a borderline statistically significant increase in overall infections among the six trials reporting this outcome. This finding agrees with a more recent and more inclusive systematic review specifically examining the topic of infections as a harmful outcome of transfusion.(3)[Rohde et al, JAMA 2014]
Caveats: The increasing numbers of individuals involved in trials of transfusion strategies is gradually helping to clarify benefits and harms, though the target continues to move. In the 2012 Cochrane review pulmonary edema, infections, and death appeared to be significantly more common in the liberal strategy group, while in updated reviews infections and death are variably more common while pulmonary edema is not. Of particular note a third meta-analysis, one examining exclusively trials using a lower threshold of <7g/dL as a restrictive trigger for transfusion, finds statistically significant benefits to this approach on deaths, pulmonary edema, infections, and rebleeding, with no indications of harms on cardiac function or outcome.(4)[Salpeter et al, AM J Med 2014]
It is also worth noting that a large 2013 study of patients with active acute gastrointestinal bleeding found a statistically significant increase in mortality with a liberal strategy, an important finding both because it is the first high quality, large single trial to show a clear mortality harm with a liberal strategy, and because it was performed in actively bleeding patients.(5)[Villanueva et al, NEJM 2013] This finding suggests that a group many would characterize as being the most likely to benefit from transfusion—those with active ongoing blood loss—fared considerably worse when transfused more liberally. On the flip side, a single, medium-size, relatively well done study of cancer patients undergoing abdominal surgery found a substantial mortality benefit with a liberal transfusion strategy, raising the possibility of either an anomalous finding or a specific context in which liberal strategies may be importantly beneficial.(6)[de Almeida et al, Anesthesiology 2015]
The quality and reliability of all of these data are variable but in a number of cases are reasonably high, although the lack of blinding is a necessary evil in such trials. In a number of more recent studies blinded outcome assessors and data analysis were undertaken to minimize bias. Despite this, there may be considerable residual bias, although direction of bias most often runs in favor of more intensive bedside management and treatment, suggesting that the bias here is unlikely to have caused the harms suggested, and more likely underestimates them. We have chosen, therefore, to classify this intervention as Black, indicating that data suggest to us that there is proven harm to use of a liberal transfusion strategy, without benefits in the great majority of study settings.
Author: David H. Newman, MD
Published/Updated: April 16, 2015


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Appway raises $37M, its first-ever funding, for financial customer management tools
Ingrid Lunden @ingridlunden / 3 years
With the renewed push for more of the services we use everyday to be accessible online and in a non-physical way, a company out of Switzerland that builds tools for financial services companies to interact better with their customers via the web is today announcing a round of funding to expand its operations.
Appway, which provides software to help banks and others that transact with customers to build banking, mortgage, regulatory compliance and other service management tools, has raised $37 million in equity funding from a single investor, Summit Partners.
Summit is taking a minority stake, but the percentage (and the startup's overall valuation) are not being disclosed.
Hans Peter Wolf, Appway's CEO who co-founded the company with Oliver Brupbacher, said in an interview that the money will go toward continued expansion of its business, both by adding more customers and by building more tools for those customers in turn to provide services to their own users. He added that North America has been one of Appway's fastest-growing markets, and so the plan will be to double down specifically there, alongside existing operations in Europe and Asia.
If you've not heard of Appway before in the world of tech, that's not too unusual: the Zurich-based company has been quietly living, bootstrapped and profitable, behind the scenes and under the startup radar since 2003. But in the last 17 years, it's managed to amass a long list of impressive customers — a list that features 10 out of 25 of the largest wealth managers in the world, including Credit Suisse, HSBC, J.P. Morgan, LGT, LPL Financial and Deutsche Bank, the telecoms giant Orange, KPMG and others.
The services that it provides range from online banking, mortgage software and wealth management, through to account management, onboarding of new services and customers and a long list of back-office tools to manage customers and data to help the financial services companies comply with regulatory requirements.
Business has been strong, but the reason Appway finally decided to bite the bullet and raise money, Wolf said, was to ride the wave of growth, and bring in new people to the board who could help guide what the next steps might be as its business matures.
He noted that Appway has seen an acceleration of interest in recent months — predating the current health pandemic, he added, but absolutely sped up with urgency because of it — related to "business transformation."
Yes, that's a term thrown around a lot in the world of enterprise, but it's actually an important one that is propelling a lot of business for disruptive startups: Huge institutions have been using the same legacy systems for decades, and that creaky infrastructure finally is being replaced with more modern and flexible software, often sold as a service from the cloud, in order to expand what companies can do for their customers.
That's where the current pandemic has figured in a key way for companies like Appway. A lot of financial services — especially those at the higher end of the market (e.g. wealth management) — have long existed around the concept of personal relationships and years of face-to-face service, but much of that has had to be reassessed in recent times. Some might have bristled at or resisted the changes (or investments in the changes) in the past, but their hand has been forced, so to speak, by current circumstances.
But coupled with the fact that so many people today are more accustomed to carrying out much of their lives online, the changes are turning out to be, in many cases, not as painful as you might think, and in the case of financial services, we're seeing a big turnaround and embracing of the new platforms. And that means strong business funnels for companies like Appway.
There are a number of companies providing tools to organisations to help build and run services online. Those in the same general area as Appway include Pega, Intalio, Oracle, IBM and more. One key difference is that many of these are general purpose, aiming their low-code approach to a number of verticals, which in one regard makes them potentially much bigger enterprises, but in another means they cannot speak as specifically to the needs of any particular vertical. Appway's focus on financial services in particular — and of course the fact that financial services happens to be a hugely lucrative industry — is one thing that stood out for Summit when making the investment.
"Unlike general purpose low-code development platforms, Appway seeks to address core pain points in the financial services industry by automating the flow of work to revolutionize the customer experience and drive digital transformation across organizations," said Dr. Matthias Allgaier, a managing director at Summit Partners who will also join the Appway board of directors, in a statement. "We believe the company has delivered impressive, consistent capital efficient growth, and we are thrilled to partner with Hans Peter Wolf, his co-founder Oliver Brupbacher and the entire Appway team."
When you hear about companies like these — successful startups that have been off the grid of tech media because they haven't been tightly linked to the investment cycle or any obvious consumer news stream — suddenly raising money, you have to wonder how many more there are innovating and doing more good work in the same way.
One reason Wolf said that Appway never raised money before was because when it was founded, it was just how things were.
"In 2003, venture capital and private equity didn't exist at all in Switzerland, and I don't think the country's startups were on any radar of any PE house," he said with a laugh. "Ironically, the financial crisis was when we had our first successes in the U.S.," partly because of its regulatory compliance tools, which were suddenly in demand. "Now, I would say it's a steady pattern, Appway made the decision to raise growth equity during an arguably even bigger crisis."
Indeed, as we continue to see more activity spread out beyond the most-obvious tech hubs, it may well be that yet more Appways fall under the spotlight.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The company NEW ERA DEVELOPMENT GROUP LLC is registered on 10/12/2010. DOS number of the company 4005831. Current status of the organization Active. Postal address of the company NEW ERA DEVELOPMENT GROUP LLC - 295 COLUMBIA ST, #9, BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, 11231. The credit report for the company NEW ERA DEVELOPMENT GROUP LLC.


A lot has been made of Miss Teen USA Katie Hay's use of the N-word on Twitter a few years ago. I naturally expected to see evidence of some white supremacist who calls blacks by that word.
But the tweets show Hay was only trying to speak as if she were black, or what she thinks is acceptable black lingo. The problem is many blacks use the word in that way and in Hip Hop Music, which is wildly popular with white teenage girls.
So this was the result.
We need to have a national talk about this. ASAP.
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Environmental Law 2021
Edesio Carrasco
Ana Sas
Consuelo Toresano
Schultz Carrasco Benítez is a boutique law firm in Santiago, Chile, that specialises in providing counsel to both local and foreign companies in environmental and natural resources law, as well as corporate/M&A and general practice matters, backed by a litigation department in those areas. The firm was founded to provide legal advice, giving a quick response to companies and people seeking a personalised and efficient service with high standards and specialisation. The firm focuses on both immediate and long-term goals with its clients, helping them address and anticipate challenges across a changing environment and providing strategic and innovative solutions. Additionally, the firm's collaborative culture allows the firm to work across departments, continually sharing its insight and experience with clients.
1.1 Key Environmental Protection Policies, Principles and Laws
The Chilean Constitution currently in force (Article 19 No 8), sets forth the right to live in an environment free of pollution and establishes that it is the state's duty to ensure both that the environment is not negatively affected and the preservation of nature.
On 25 October 2020, Chile voted on a referendum to replace this constitutional text; as of the date of this writing, the democratically elected Conventional Convention is working on the new Constitution, creating different special commissions to discuss and make proposals to the plenary Convention for their approval. Among these, there is the Commission on Environment, Rights of Nature, Natural Commons and Economic Mode.
It is not entirely clear how protection of nature will be addressed in this new Constitution. However, in the current context, where the effects of climate change are becoming more apparent and the country is experiencing a decade-long drought, it is probably that some ideas – such as sustainable development, protection of nature and ecosystems, and access to water – will be issues of high relevance in the new constitutional text.
Law No 19,300
The mandate to the state to ensure both that the environment is not negatively affected and the preservation of nature present in the Chilean Constitution currently in force is further detailed in Law No 19,300 on General Bases of the Environment, which outlines the main aspects of several mechanisms to protect the environment, such as:
the Environmental Impact Assessment System (Sistema de Evaluación de Impacto Ambiental, SEIA):
the strategic environmental assessment;
environmental audits; and
environmental responsibility.
It also details the functions, organisation and other aspects of the Ministry of the Environment and the Environmental Assessment Service (Servicio de Evaluación Ambiental, SEA).
The key principles of environmental law in Chile are also found in Law No 19,300. These include the preventive principle, the participation principle and the efficiency principle.
S.D. No 40/2012
There is also the S.D. No 40/2012, Regulations of the Environmental Impact Assessment System, that detail the functioning of the SEIA. Any project or activity listed in Article 10 of Law No 19,300 must be assessed through the SEIA in order to obtain an environmental licence (Resolución de Calificación Ambiental, RCA).
A recent development is the new requirement for assessment in the SEIA of projects or activities that might affect wetlands located partially or totally within the urban radius (Article 10 letter s) of Law No 19,300, added by Law No 21,202 which amended, in turn, several statutes increasing protection of wetlands).
Within the SEIA, several public agencies comment on projects submitted and are able to impose conditions for those projects' operation within the sphere of their respective competencies. The project must then be carried out in accordance with the conditions established in its permit.
Another key environmental regulation is Law No 20,417, Organic Law of the Superintendence of the Environment (Superintendencia del Medio Ambiente, SMA), which provides the regulatory framework for that institution and its main functions, such as environmental inspections, punitive procedures and incentives for compliance.
Law No 20,600 creates the Environmental Courts. There are currently three Environmental Courts in Chile with jurisdiction in the northern (Antofagasta), central (Santiago), and southern (Valdivia) regions of the country. The Environmental Courts are collegiate bodies comprised of two judges who are lawyers and one with a degree in the sciences. This range of expertise enables them to grasp the technical complexities of the cases brought before these courts. It is important to note that, as this legislation is relatively new, the contours of the right to live in a pollution-free environment, and of environmental law in general, have been defined, in many respects, by jurisprudential criteria. Therefore, the Environmental Courts and the Supreme Court play an important role in the construction of environmental law application criteria, permanently shaping the limits and powers of each environmental agency when they regulate an issue or adjudicate over a dispute. They are not part of the executive branch; they are independent and impartial.
Other important regulations are air emissions standards, and prevention and decontamination plans, which are established by the authorities for certain geographical areas, depending on their pollution levels.
2.1 Key Regulatory Authorities
Ministry of the Environment
The main regulatory authority on environmental matters in Chile is the Ministry of the Environment (Ministerio del Medio Ambiente, MMA), which collaborates with the President of the Republic in the design and application of policies, plans and programmes on environmental matters, as well as in the protection and conservation of biological diversity and of renewable and water resources, promoting sustainable development, the integrity of environmental policy and its normative regulation.
The Council of Ministers for Sustainability is chaired by the Minister of the Environment and composed of the Ministers of: Agriculture; Finance; Health; Economy, Development and Tourism; Energy; Public Works; Housing and Urban Development; Transport and Telecommunications; Mining; and Planning. The main functions of this Council are proposing environmental public policy to the President of the Republic, and giving its opinion regarding environmental bills and administrative acts.
Another key regulatory authority is the SEA, which is in charge of managing the SEIA and, when applicable, the process of citizen participation and of participation of indigenous communities in the SEIA in accordance with ILO Convention 169.
The SEA, additionally, manages a public information system about the projects that are assessed within the system, handling the environmental licences and authorisations and a public register of certified environmental consultants.
Regarding its regulatory authority, the SEA is in charge of drafting guidelines that standardise and unify criteria for the application of environmental law. Also, the SEA interprets RCAs, whenever there are doubts over the scope of their text or their content.
The SMA
Another key agency is the SMA, which is in charge of overseeing compliance with environmental licences, laws, regulations and other permits. The SMA also has broad authority to inspect, and request information from, regulated parties and is entitled to impose significant fines and penalties in cases of environmental breach. These penalties include fines up to 10,000 Yearly Tax Units (YTU) – approximately USD8 million – cancellation of the RCA, and temporary or permanent closure of facilities.
As an independent and impartial body, the role of the Environmental Courts, described in 1.1 Key Environmental Protection Policies, Principles and Laws, is also key, as they oversee the application by the SMA, SEA and MMA of the environmental law and regulations.
Biodiversity and Protected Areas Service
It must be noted that, at the time of writing, Chile still does not have a public agency devoted to managing protected areas. The Bill creating the Biodiversity and Protected Areas Service (Servicio de Biodiversidad y Áreas Protegidas, SBAP), which is an institution envisioned in the institutional reform of 2010, is still under discussion in the Chilean Congress, after over ten years.
Other Authorities
Finally, other authorities with relevant attributions in environmental terms are:
the General Water Directorate (Dirección General de Aguas, DGA);
the Agricultural and Livestock Service (Servicio Agrícola y Ganadero, SAG);
the National Corporation of Forestry (Corporación Nacional Forestal, CONAF); and
the National Service of Geology and Mining (Servicio Nacional de Geología y Minería, Sernageomin).
3. Environmental Incidents and Permits
3.1 Investigative and Access Points
The enforcement of environmental licences, legal standards and regulations in Chile is carried out by the SMA. The SMA has powers to investigate and prosecute administrative liability due to environmental damage or to breaches of RCAs and other applicable regulations.
In this context, the SMA may impose fines and penalties, which include fines up to 10,000 YTU (approximately USD8 million), termination of the RCA, and temporary or permanent closure of facilities.
Additionally, the SMA manages several reporting and disclosure systems, which operate on web-based platforms and are not publicly available, unless the SMA starts a punitive proceeding against a regulated entity.
The SMA is also charged with managing several incentives for compliance, such as compliance programmes and self-reporting measures. A compliance programme is a set of verifiable measures to return a project or activity to environmental compliance. If the programme is accepted by the SMA and is successfully fulfilled, it will result in the non-application of the fine that would have been imposed otherwise.
Self-reporting, on the other hand, consists of the informing, by a regulated party, of an environmental breach to the SMA. The result of the self-report is that, if the party successfully completes a compliance programme, the fine that would have been applicable will not be applied by the SMA.
Finally, any person or entity may file a complaint before the SMA denouncing a breach of environmental licences or regulations. The SMA may further investigate and, if it deems it appropriate, will pursue a punitive proceeding.
3.2 Environmental Permits
The SEIA is an administrative process managed by a specialised agency, the SEA, in which several public agencies with environmental competencies, make observations within the scope of those competencies regarding the environmental impact(s) of the project or activity being assessed. As a result, these agencies can, with respect to the relevant statutes, impose measures and conditions on the project owner in order to mitigate these impacts.
Article 10 of Law No 19,300 lists the projects or activities that must be assessed under the SEIA, in order to obtain an RCA to operate. If the RCA approves the project assessed, it will also approve the environmental contents of sectorial permits applicable, which may not be rejected thereafter due to environmental reasons.
DIA and EIA
A project can enter the SEIA by means of an environmental impact declaration (declaración de impacto ambiental, DIA) or study (estudio de impacto ambiental, EIA). In general, a project that must enter the SEIA will be assessed by a DIA; unless it generates or creates any of the impacts, effects or circumstances described in Article 11 of Law No 19,300. If the project generates any of these more significant impacts, it must be submitted through an EIA.
These impacts, effects or circumstances are significant adverse impacts and consist of, among others:
endangerment to public health;
adverse effects on natural resources;
proximity or location inside protected areas.
The administrative record of the environmental assessment is always publicly available, whether on the website of the SEIA or in the offices of the SEA. Exceptionally, and at the request of the interested party, the authority may keep technical, financial or other background information under reserve so as to protect commercial or industrial confidentiality, or to protect patents or inventions linked to the assessed project or activity.
Additionally, communities affected by a project under assessment may participate in the process, making observations to the project being assessed. Communities may always participate in an EIA, and in a DIA if:
this is requested by ten directly affected persons, or by two or more citizen organisations with valid legal entity; or
when the project assessed places an environmental burden on nearby communities.
Whenever an indigenous community is affected by a project assessed in the SEIA, the SEA will open a special participation stage, tailored to the requirements laid out by ILO Convention 169.
Observations and comments made by the community or by indigenous communities will be considered by the SEA as an integral part of the assessment process and must be addressed by the SEA, who must issue a well-founded response to every one of these comments. If the SEA fails to properly respond to any of the observations and comments made by the community, the person who made the observation my file an appeal to invalidate the RCA.
Amendments and Permits
RCA provisions are strictly binding throughout the life cycle of the project. Any significant amendments must be assessed within the SEIA. Where there is doubt over whether an amendment is significant, it is possible to ask the SEA its opinion through an appropriateness letter (consulta de pertinencia). The answer of the SEA will not have the status of a permit or an authorisation, rather it will be merely the opinion of the SEA as to, in light of the information provided, whether the project or amendment studied should enter the SEIA.
Within the SEIA, the project's owner must also request specific permits for the project. These are sectoral permits granted by different sectoral authorities, but that have environmental contents. These are the environmental sectorial permits (permisos ambientales sectoriales, PAS). Examples of these permits include
permits to cut down native forest;
permits to build a tailings deposit; or
permits to build large hydraulic works.
The environmental aspects of those permits are assessed and approved within the SEIA, and the RCA will duly note this circumstance. The project holder will have to then process these permits before the corresponding authority for the sectoral approval, showing the RCA. Although the authority might reject the permit for technical reasons, it will not be allowed to reject the sectoral permit for environmental reasons.
Appeals Process
The project holder may appeal the RCA if it imposes onerous conditions or requirements; or if the RCA rejects the project assessed. Appeals against an RCA shall be filed before the Executive Direction of the SEA if the challenged RCA was based on a DIA, or before the Council of Ministers, if the challenged RCA was based on an EIA. In turn, these decisions may then be reviewed by the Environmental Court; whose decisions are subject to review by the Supreme Court via a cassation remedy, in applicable cases.
Also, as previously mentioned, members of the community that made observations of the project assessed, and who feel their observations were not duly considered in the RCA, may also appeal the RCA, following the same routes mentioned above.
4. Environmental Liability
4.1 Key Types of Liability
The following are the key types of liability related to environmental damage or to the breach of environmental regulation.
Administrative Liability
Administrative liability arises from a breach of environmental regulations, of the project RCA, or from the causation of environmental damage, regardless of any further environmental or civil liability that might arise. The SMA, as stated in 2.1 Key Regulatory Authorities, can investigate any project or activity in order to verify environmental compliance. Note that the SMA usually considers any deviation from the RCA a breach of its contents.
If a breach is detected, the SMA can file charges against the project owner, starting an administrative procedure that can conclude with penalties ranging from a written reprimand to fines of up to 10,000 YTU (approximately USD8 million), including total or partial closure of the respective project and/or revocation of its RCA.
Alternatively, if environmental damage can be repaired, the SMA can order the project owner to execute a repair plan. If the damage cannot be repaired (such as damage to an archaeological site), then the SMA can impose a fine, or other measures such as the ones detailed above.
When indicted, a project holder can also submit to the SMA a compliance programme for its approval. Note that compliance programmes can be presented only once and cannot cover very serious violations.
This plan must be executed in its entirety, and any breach in the programme will result in the reopening of the penalty proceeding and imposition of up to twice the original fine. If the plan is completely executed, and this is approved by the SMA, then the proceeding will be concluded and no other penalty will be imposed.
Penalties imposed by the SMA can be appealed before the Environmental Court.
Civil Liability
Civil liability arising from environmental damage is set forth in Articles 51 to 55 of Law No 19,300. According to this Law, anyone causing environmental damage, whether by malice or fault, must restore those damages. In addition, breach of any administrative regulations will result in a presumption of liability. After the Environmental Court has established liability, the affected parties may seek redress as per general rules before the civil courts.
At the time of writing (October 2021) there are no general provisions setting forth a general regime for criminal liability linked to environmental violations. The Criminal Code and other statutes set forth few specific provisions of limited scope related to criminal offences of an environmental nature.
For example, the Criminal Code punishes, among other things, the malicious poisoning or infection of water intended for public consumption as well as withdrawal of water flows without water rights. Another environmental criminal offence is found in the General Law on Fishing and Aquaculture, which punishes anyone who introduces, or orders the introduction of, any pollutants into any body of water causing damage without previous neutralisation.
Indeed, the Chilean criminal environmental liability system has been considered as insufficient. There is currently a Bill in Congress whose purpose is to set forth a broader scheme for criminal liability linked to environmental crimes and damage. It should be noted that, under the current legislation, environmental damage is not a criminal offence.
5. Environmental Incidents and Damage
5.1 Liability for Historical Environmental Incidents or Damage
In Chile, there are no special regulations regarding the environmental liability of current landowners arising from historical incidents or past owners' actions.
In accordance with Law No 19,300, there is a five-year statute of limitations to file an environmental damage claim, beginning from the definitive cessation of the event causing the damage.
Regarding civil damages, if the claim is filed directly before a civil court (without a ruling from an Environmental Court establishing the existence of environmental damage), the term to file the claim is the general term for torts (four years from the occurrence of the event).
5.2 Types of Liability and Key Defences
Administrative liability has been addressed in the 4.1 Key Types of Liability. As previously discussed, the SMA can file charges against the project owner, who may:
respond to the charges submitting its defences; or
submit a compliance programme, in applicable cases.
Please note that these are either/or alternatives.
If a project owner decides to submit a defence, it can use all means admitted by law, which will be evaluated by the SMA pursuant to the logical and reasonable rules of evaluation and procedure (sana crítica).
Environmental Damages Liability
In relation to liability due to environmental damage, Chile operates a fault-based system, and apart from specific cases where the law sets forth a strict liability scheme (such as application of pesticides, hydrocarbon spillages into bodies of navigable waters, etc), fault expressed as malice or negligence is required to establish liability. Additionally, the following requirements must be met:
an action causing environmental damage;
significant damage or injury to the environment; and
the causal connection between action and damage.
Environmental damage claims such as these must be filed before the Environmental Court by:
the individual who suffered the damage;
the municipality in whose territory the environmental damage happened; or
the state.
In this case, the burden of proof lies on the plaintiff. Key defences include:
denying causal connection between action and damage;
arguing against the significance of the damage; or
proving there was no malice and that standards of due care were followed.
It is important to note that, in order to give rise to environmental liability, the damage must be "significant". It is accepted that any human activity will cause some sort of injury to the environment, so that not any effect to the environment can be considered as environmental damage. Therefore, the damage must be significant in order to allow a claim for reparations from the person or entity that caused it. The law does not define the concept of "significance", so the Environmental Courts and the Supreme Court have defined some criteria to establish the existence of significative damage on a case-by-case basis, which include:
duration and entity of the damage;
quality and quantity of natural resources affected;
effects on the ecosystem; and
capacity, and time required, for regeneration.
6. Corporate Liability
6.1 Liability for Environmental Damage or Breaches of Environmental Law
According to Chilean legislation, environmental damage can be caused by any person or legal entity, and the same can be said of breaches of environmental law.
There is a general provision related to corporate liability in Chilean Law No 18,046, on Stock Corporations, transferring the liability of the company to its administrators or representatives unless their lack of participation in, or their opposition to, the act constituting the infringement is proven. In other words, in case of breach of environmental law, or in case of environmental damage, the administrators or legal representatives of a stock corporation will be liable unless it is proven that they did not participate or that they opposed to the act constituting the violation.
A recent development is the enactment of Law No 20,393 that established criminal liability of legal entities, in relation to specific crimes. Some of these crimes are set forth in the General Law on Fishing and Aquaculture, and involve some environmental contents; such as the contamination of water bodies resulting in harm to hydrobiological resources; extraction or commercialisation of resources subject to extraction bans; and the unauthorised extraction of resources within benthic resources management areas.
However, this could change in the future, as there is currently a Bill in Congress aimed at expanding the scope of criminal liability of legal entities (Bill No 13204-07).
6.2 Shareholder or Parent Company Liability
Currently, in Chile, shareholders or parent companies are not liable for breaches of environmental law. As stated in 6.1 Liability for Environmental Damage or Breaches of Environmental Law, the party liable before environmental authorities is the project owner. However, it should be noted that this could change in the future with the Bill regarding the expansion of criminal liability of legal entities (Bill No 13204-07).
In some cases, however, financial entities had been held liable for environmental damage. In a 2013 ruling, the Supreme Court ordered the company Forestal León Ltda. and the Banco de Chile to jointly repair the environmental damage caused in the El Peñasco estate by the illegal cutting down and burning of native forest (Supreme Court, Case No 8593-2012).
7. Personal Liability
7.1 Directors and Other Officers
According to Chilean legislation, any person – whether a natural or a legal entity – wilfully or negligently causing environmental damage is liable both to restore the damaged environment and also to compensate those affected by that damage.
Breaches of an RCA or of environmental law, prosecuted by the SMA, may result in fines of up to 10,000 YTU (approximately USD 8 million), as well as closure or cancellation of that RCA.
In case of stock corporations, liability can be transferred to its administrators or representatives unless their lack of participation in, or their opposition to, the act constituting the breach is proven.
In relation to obligations arising from a mine closure plan, Law No 20,551 provides that the mining company or the mining entrepreneur are responsible for compliance with the closure plan, whether that plan is executed directly or by a third party. If the requirements of the mine closure plan are infringed, the legal representatives of the mining company, and whoever is responsible for the breach, will be sanctioned with a fine ranging from 100 to 1,000 YTU (approximately USD6,750–67,500). The specific amount to be applied will be determined on a case-by-case basis by the Superintendent of the Environment, depending on the seriousness of the breach and the criteria provided in Law No 20,417, which include: intent, prior conduct, economic benefit and endangerment to the environment or public health.
7.2 Insuring against Liability
There is no regulation in Chile regarding insurance against environmental liability. However, insurance could be purchased to cover the civil damages related to this liability.
8. Lender Liability
8.1 Financial Institutions/Lender Liability
The party appearing as the project holder before the environmental authority is liable for breaches of environmental laws and regulations, or for environmental damage according to Article 24 of Law No 19,300.
Therefore, financing or lending entities are not liable before the environmental authorities in the case of a breach of environmental laws and regulations, or in the case of environmental damage.
8.2 Lender Protection
Even though lender protection is not regulated in Chile, and lenders will not be liable before the environmental authorities if they are not listed as the project owners before those environmental authorities, there are several steps that can be taken in order to protect their investments.
For example, lenders could protect themselves by conducting environmental law due diligence to investigate potential environmental liabilities, and by drafting contractual clauses limiting their liability in the case of an environmental offence or contingency.
9. Civil Liability
9.1 Civil Claims
Environmental liability arises from the generation of environmental damage. If environmental liability is established, it is possible to claim reparation for civil damages derived from the environmental ones.
This claim must be filed before a civil court, only after the Environmental Court has determined that environmental damage exists.
If the Environmental Court rules that there was no environmental damage, there could still be liability to compensate those civil damages caused, actionable as per the general rules of civil liability before civil courts.
9.2 Exemplary or Punitive Damages
Chilean legislation provides that compensation should cover only the damage caused according to the principle of "integral damage reparation" (ie, the claimant should be restored to the position they would have held if the damage had not occurred). Therefore, the courts cannot award exemplary or punitive damages.
9.3 Class or Group Actions
There are no class or group actions in Chilean environmental law. Parties with standing to claim environmental damage are those directly affected (whether natural or legal entities), municipalities or the state.
In some cases, the Supreme Court has broadened the definition of "standing", admitting a more relaxed evidential standard for parties to prove they have been "affected" in relation to the constitutional right to live in an environment free of pollution. However, this broader standing does not fall into the definition of a class or group action. The only class actions recognised in Chilean law can be found in consumer protection legislation.
9.4 Landmark Cases
As there are no class actions in Chile, there are no landmark cases to highlight.
10. Contractual Agreements
10.1 Transferring or Apportioning Liability
The holder of an environmental licence is solely responsible for its fulfilment and is the only liable party in the case of a breach of permits or regulations, or in the case of environmental damage. Because of this, the relevant environmental authority must be informed of any change in ownership of a project that has been environmentally approved.
Even though it is possible to transfer or apportion liability among the parties, these agreements are only binding among the parties, and not to the regulator. In other words, the party registered as the project owner before the authority is the only liable party, regardless of any private agreement to the contrary.
10.2 Environmental Insurance
Chilean legislation does not provide for overall environmental insurance covering environmental damage or breaches of environmental legislation. There are, however, forms of private insurance that could cover such events, such as policies covering the costs of compensation to third parties or the costs derived from a clean-up operation. These are governed by the common rules applicable to insurance.
11. Contaminated Land
11.1 Key Laws Governing Contaminated Land
There is no special legal regime related to remediation of contaminated land in Chile, which shall fall under the environmental damage regime.
If environmental damage is caused with negligence or intent, it will give rise to two different liabilities:
the "environmental" liability to repair the damaged environment; and
a civil torts liability, to indemnify those whose rights have been harmed by the environmental damage.
Usually, the SMA will pursue reparation, and then the government might pursue civil liability against the responsible parties.
12. Climate Change and Emissions Trading
12.1 Key Policies, Principles and Laws
Chile has been an active part of the international negotiations regarding climate change, and is part of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Accords. However, Chile is not among those countries with binding greenhouse gas emissions reductions targets.
In 2020, Chile presented its Nationally Intended Contribution (NIC), which consists of different measures, aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The NIC also proposes means of implementation and data to improve the quality of information and transparency.
It is noteworthy that, as per its NIC, Chile is aiming at reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2030 in relation to 2019 emission levels, with the long-term goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050.
Moreover, the NIC states that under certain enabling conditions there is a 45% by 2030 emission reductions potential target, taking into account mitigation and/or carbon capture actions.
Finally, at the time of writing, there are Bills being discussed in the Chilean Congress that relate to climate change. One of these is the Framework Law on Climate Change, which lays the foundations for drafting and implementing long-term climate policy. Another one is the Glacier Protection Law, which establishes an absolute prohibition on mining or any other type of industrial activity on glaciers of any type (whether white or rocky) glaciers, except for those activities intended for scientific research, tourism or sustainable sports.
12.2 Targets to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions
In April 2020, the Chilean government presented its 2020 NIC to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, which contains Chile's commitment to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2030 (compared to 2019 emission levels) and to become carbon neutral by 2050.
Additionally, the Ministry of Energy has set the goal of closing every thermoelectric power plant in Chile by 2040. Regarding this matter, a Schedule of Withdrawal or Reconversion of Coal Plants was presented. It establishes the closure of the eight oldest plants by 2024, which represent 19% of Chilean carbon-based power plant capacity. The schedule also establishes a commitment to define dates in worktables formed every five years, which will allow the setting up of specific retirement schedules in the future.
As a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote decarbonisation, the Chilean government is developing a strategy to develop and promote the green hydrogen industry, which can be produced without emitting greenhouse gases or pollutants. It should be noted that Chile has a great potential for renewable energies to generate green hydrogen, and could reach more than 1,800 GW of installed capacity if this potential is exploited.
The national green hydrogen strategy is a long-term policy that establishes Chile's ambitions to create a new industry in this sense, having as its axis the promotion of investment and financing of renewable energy generation, international co-operation on the matter and the revision of the applicable regulations. For its elaboration, technical tables, citizen workshops and an advisory council have been formed. A public consultation process was also carried out, whose results and conclusions must be published by the Ministry of Energy.
13. Asbestos
13.1 Key Policies, Principles and Laws Relating to Asbestos
Since the enactment of S.D. No 656/2000, the production, import, distribution, sale and use of asbestos or any other product of material that contains it is forbidden, with the exceptions set forth in the mentioned regulation.
Asbestos is also addressed in S.D. No 594/2000, which provides for minimum health and safety standards in workplaces, forbidding the use of blue asbestos-crocidolite, and considering asbestos (both dust and fibres) as a hazardous waste material to be handled as per the regulations set forth in S.D. No 148/2003.
14. Waste
14.1 Key Laws and Regulatory Controls
There are various statutes governing the handling, storage, transportation and final disposal of waste according to the different classes of waste involved:
hazardous waste (S.D. No 148/2003);
solid industrial waste and health and environmental conditions in workplaces (S.D. No 495/2000);
waste from hospital centres (S.D. No 6/2009);
sludge from waste water treatment plants (S.D. No 4/2009);
health and safety conditions in landfills (S.D. No 189/2005).
Generation, transport and elimination of waste, whether hazardous or not, must be reported through the Pollutant Release and Transfer Registry (Registro de Emisiones y Transferencias de Contaminantes, RETC) web platform. It should be noted that the above-mentioned statutes merely include provisions governing the handling of waste that has already been generated and do not provide any mechanisms for incentivising waste minimisation, recycling or recovery.
Law No 20,920 on extended producer responsibility and recycling promotion (Ley de Responsabilidad Extendida del Productor, REP Law), is the broader statute pertaining to waste and includes an economic instrument for waste management, seeking to reduce waste generation and increase recovery. The MMA will gradually set goals for waste generation and recovery, and compliance will be overseen by the SMA.
The REP Law sets forth a hierarchy for waste handling:
first – prevention of waste generation;
second – reusing;
third – recycling;
fourth – total or partial energy recovery.
Waste elimination is seen as the last resort for waste handling. Also, the REP Law represents an important step towards a more comprehensive waste-handling policy, that includes recovery and recycling in the life cycle of waste.
14.2 Retention of Environmental Liability
The REP Law sets forth an extended liability for the producers of products designated as a "priority" by the Law due to their size, hazardous characteristics, or the presence of exploitable components, with the purpose of decreasing generation of waste and promoting their reuse, recycling and other types of recovery. Those priority products are lubricating oils, electric and electronic equipment, packaging and containers, tyres, and batteries.
The extended producer liability set forth by the REP Law entails that the producer of priority products will remain responsible for them until they are properly recovered or eliminated by another authorised entity, such as a waste-treatment facility or a landfill.
14.3 Requirements to Design, Take Back, Recover, Recycle or Dispose of Goods
The REP Law sets forth a hierarchy in waste handling where elimination is the last alternative (see 14.1 Key Laws and Regulatory Controls). This way, any waste with the potential to be recovered must be recovered. This is one of the obligations that form the extended responsibility of the producer of a priority product.
The MMA will issue regulations considering different instruments to prevent generation of waste, such as eco-design, labelling and rebates. Also, the MMA will set goals for waste collection and recovery. To date, the regulations in force are the Regulations of the Recycling Fund (S.D. No 7/2017) and the Regulations Setting the Procedure for Setting Recycling Goals for priority products (S.D. No 8/2017).
As of the date of this writing (October 2021), the Ministry of the Environment has enacted two regulations setting the recollection goals for priority products: S.D. No 8/2019 setting collection goals for tires and S.D. No 12/2020, setting collection goals for packaging and containers. These regulations will enter into force in 2023.
Other laws related to the use of single-use plastics have been passed, such as Law No 21,100 for the elimination of plastic bags, and Law No 21,368 that limits the generation and use of disposable plastic products (prohibiting the delivery of plastic cutlery, light bulbs and others in food establishments), to be fully implemented in November 2024.
Additionally, a new Bill banning the use of non-compostable plastic products in political campaigns is being discussed in Congress (Bill No 14024-12).
15. Environmental Disclosure and Information
15.1 Self-Reporting Requirements
Projects with an RCA, and also those sources subject to emissions standards and other instruments named in R.E. No 885/2016, must inform the SMA of any environmental emergency or event associated to them. The SMA, from time to time, also issues general reporting requirements applicable to certain classes of projects, such as: R.E. No 2257/2020, applicable to regulated parties who discharge treated waste water into continental bodies of water as per S.D. No 90/2000; and R.E. No 680/2021, applicable to thermal power plants required to report emissions online.
Also, RCAs often include different disclosure obligations to the SMA, which are determined on a case-by-case basis. Reporting must be conducted online through the RCA follow-up system of the SMA, within 24 hours of the event.
The SMA also has different computer systems to report environmental variables, for example:
a system to report emissions by thermoelectric power plants;
a system to report the payment of green taxes; and
a system to report updates in the execution of Compliance Programmes.
Finally, projects with an RCA must inform the SMA whenever the development stage of the project changes (ie, the start of construction, commissioning or abandonment).
15.2 Public Environmental Information
Public services in Chile are guided by the principle of transparency. All information held by the administration, and all administrative proceedings, shall be public unless there are reasons provided in the law for making that information reserved or secret. If the information has not been made publicly available by the authority, the public is allowed to request access to such information, which will be granted unless there is a legally valid reason for not releasing such information.
There are several public databases of environmental information. The most relevant of these are the following:
E-SEIA, where the electronic records of environmental impact assessment processes are publicly available;
Sistema Nacional de Información de Fiscalización Ambiental, SNIFA, where all punitive proceedings carried out by the SMA are public; and
the website of the MMA, which also contains public databases of the process of elaboration or review of policies, regulations, and emission and quality standards; there is also a public registry in the MMA website regarding the declaration processes of urban wetlands in Chile.
15.3 Corporate Disclosure Requirement
There are different regulations providing the corporate disclosure of environmental information. For example, release of emissions and waste must be reported through the RETC carried by the MMA. Different emissions standards provide reporting requirements. Also, many RCAs establish the obligation to provide monitoring and reports that must be disclosed to the relevant authority.
Finally, all regulated parties have the duty to disclose any information requested from them by the SMA.
16. Transactions
16.1 Environmental Due Diligence
The party liable for the breach of environmental obligations is the party appearing as the holder of the project before the SEA. Therefore, environmental due diligence is usually conducted whenever there is a relevant transaction involving projects, activities or facilities governed by environmental law.
The review is usually composed of documents and information provided by the seller, public information sources and rounds of questions and answers targeted to determine compliance and possible exposure to liability due to the breach of environmental obligations.
Liability is determined by the statute of limitations, which runs for five years following the environmental damage being evidenced, and for three years for administrative breaches in general.
16.2 Disclosure of Environmental Information
Although Chilean contract legislation is built upon the principle of good faith, there is no specific obligation to disclose environmental information to a prospective purchaser.
Considering that environmental liability falls upon the party registered as the project owner before the authority, environmental due diligence is a useful tool for having a clearer view of the risk involved in a specific transaction. In addition, indemnity clauses, even when they have no validity before the regulator, can be an aid to recovery of costs associated with liability.
17. Taxes
17.1 Green Taxes
Chile recently established a tax on emissions to the atmosphere of carbon dioxide, particulate matter, nitrogen oxide and sulphur dioxide produced by facilities whose fixed sources, formed by heaters or turbines, add up to 50 MWt or more.
The tax is also applicable to new vehicles, light and medium, depending on their performance, emissions and sales price. The tax levied amounts to USD5 per ton.
This regulation was modified by Law No 21,210, which removed the requirement that these emissions should be produced by establishments whose fixed sources are heaters or turbines, as well as the requirement of thermal power. This modification will come into effect on 1 January 2023.
Schultz Carrasco Benítez
Isidora Goyenechea 3250
contacto@scyb.cl www.scyb.cl
Writing Process for a New Constitution
In October 2020, Chileans voted on a referendum to replace the Constitution of 1980 with a new text, to be drafted by a Constitutional Assembly formed by 155 citizens, elected according to a criteria of gender parity and with reserved seats for members of indigenous peoples.
The Constitutional Assembly commenced its functions on 4 July 2021, and has devoted itself to preparing the regulations for its operation, the text being finally approved on 29 September 2021. The Constitutional Assembly started working on the constitutional text on 18 October 2021, divided in seven different commissions. It is expected that the Constitutional Assembly will start working on the constitutional text itself during October 2021.
As a part of the regulations, seven commissions were created to discuss specific aspects of the future constitutional text that will be then proposed to the plenary Convention for their approval. Among them, there will be a Commission on Environment, Rights of Nature, Natural Commons and Economic Model. This Commission will discuss, among others, issues pertaining to the climate crisis, the duty to protect nature, intergenerational justice, environmental crimes and several principles of environmental law, such as the non-regression principle, and precautionary and preventive principles.
In this context, it can be highlighted that there is a certain consensus in strengthening the role of government in preserving nature and the environment, as well as the possibility to include an ecocentric view of the environment. These visions aiming at a stricter protection of nature have arisen from the increasingly common view that prior legislation has not been able to avoid "sacrifice zones" (areas that have become environmentally impaired due to the impacts of intensive economic activities) and that, in the current context of extreme drought, have not been successful in providing access to water to communities affected due to the lack of this resource.
Note that the Constitutional Assembly has a nine-month deadline for delivering a new constitutional text, extendable for three additional months. After that term, then there will be a referendum on the adoption or rejection of this new text.
Bill of Law for the Framework Law on Climate Change
In January 2020, the Chilean Senate started to discuss the Bill for the Framework Law on Climate Change (Bill No 13.191-12). It is noteworthy that, prior to its submission to the National Congress, the Ministry of the Environment subjected a draft of this bill to a public participation process, allowing the community to submit its input before the bill was sent to Congress.
The purpose of the bill is to face the challenges of climate change, moving towards a development that is low in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, to increase resilience to the effects of climate change, and to comply with international commitments.
In this vein, one of the goals of the Bill is to achieve neutrality in GHG emissions by 2050, in accordance to Chile's National Determined Contribution under the Paris Agreement, setting forth a range of instruments to make this possible at both the national and the local levels. Among these instruments is the Long-Term Climate Strategy that will include: national and sectorial emissions budgets to the years 2030 and 2050; medium-term objectives, goals and indicators; and guidelines for cross-sectional adaptation measures.
On the other hand, the bill sets forth several instruments for managing climate change at the local level, such as strategic plans for hydric resources in basins and emissions-reduction certificates.
In relation to this matter, there is currently another Bill being discussed in Congress to modify Law No 19,300 on the General Bases of the Environment, in order to add the phenomenon of climate change in its provisions, as an element to be taken into account in the environmental assessment of projects and activities.
Bill of Law Creating the Service of Biodiversity and Protected Areas
The creation of a specialised government agency in charge of managing protected areas is long overdue in Chile.
First, Law No 18,362 on the National System of Protected Areas of the State (SNASPE), promulgated in 1984, never entered into force.
Second, the Service of Biodiversity and Protected Areas (SBAP) is the last outstanding institution to be created after the reform of the environmental institutions carried out by Law N 20,417 – and it still has a long way to go. The first bill creating the SBAP was submitted to Congress in 2011 and withdrawn on 2014 (Bill No 7,487-12). The second bill entered the Senate that same year (Bill No 9,404-12) and is still being processed in Congress. The bill has completed its review in the Senate and is currently being processed in the Chamber of Deputies, as the government has noted that it should be processed urgently.
The objective of the Bill is the integration of the attributions and responsibilities for the protection of nature and protected areas in a single agency, which co-ordinates the different actors around its management, with an integrated view of the country. Currently, these functions are dispersed among different ministries: Agriculture, Economy, Environment, Culture and National Property.
The Bill also seeks to create a single National System of Protected Areas (SNASPE), integrated by all the existing protected areas in Chile. It is a system that has not yet fully existed in the country, hindering management of protected areas.
Law Protecting Urban Wetlands and the Discussion on Commencement of Protection Status
On the initiative of some Chilean Senators, it was decided to create a law aimed at protecting urban wetlands, an initiative that was later sponsored by the Executive through the Ministry of the Environment: Law No 21,202 amending various legal bodies with the aim of protecting urban wetlands (Law No 21,202), which was published in the Official Gazette on 23 January 2020.
Law No 21,202 protects urban wetlands, which are declared by the Ministry of Environment or at the request of the respective municipality. One of the most relevant aspects of this law is the amendment it makes to Article 10 of Law No 19,300 on the General Basis of the Environment (Law No 19,300), that details the different projects or activities that have to be assessed in the Environmental Impact Assessment System (SEIA), having to attain an environmental licence (RCA) to operate.
This amendment adds a new type of projects or activities that must be previously assessed in the SEIA. These are activities that are carried out in or near a wetland located within an urban radius and that could generate its physical alteration, or the chemical alteration to the biotic components or their interactions or their ecosystem flows.
The amendment is written in broad terms, covering all types of activities that may affect wetlands located within an urban radius. In order to further specify activities falling into this category, the Executive – through the Ministry of Environment – drafted a regulation published on 30 July 2020, contained in S.D. No 15/2020 (S.D. No 15/2020), setting forth the minimum criteria for the sustainability of urban wetlands and the procedure for the recognition of a wetland as an urban wetland, whether as by the request of the relevant Municipality or by the Ministry of the Environment ex officio.
Since Law No 21,202 entered into force in January 2021, multiple processes for the declaration of urban wetlands have been initiated, both by the Ministry of the Environment and at the request of different municipalities. To date (October 2021), approximately 50 processes have been initiated by the Ministry of the Environment, of which 24 have resulted in the declaration of urban wetlands and 26 are still in process.
There has been, however, a discussion on the moment after which a wetland is considered as protected under the category of urban wetland. Does protection start when the urban wetland has been officially declared – or, does protection start whenever the procedure for declaring this protection commences?
The Supreme Court and the General Comptrollership of the Republic have been on opposite sides of this discussion, understanding in very different terms how this new protection category must be understood and applied.
On one hand, the Supreme Court required environmental impact assessment of a real estate project located nearby a wetland that was in the process of being recognised as a protected urban wetland, whose building permits had been granted before the procedure to recognise as an urban wetland had commenced (Case No 21970-2021).
On the contrary, the General Comptrollership of the Republic ruled that before its official recognition, a wetland could not be considered as an urban wetland protected under Law No 21,102. Therefore, a wetland that was in the process of being declared as a protected urban wetland could not yet be considered as protected under this new statute (Ruling No E129413/2021). The latter was partially reconsidered by the General Comptrollership of the Republic (Ruling No E157665), ruling that projects affecting wetlands that have not been declared yet, must enter the SEIA anyway, if said wetlands meet the criteria for being declared as protected urban wetlands.
This ruling might finally set the criteria for determining when protection status starts, with important consequences for any projects or activities located in the vicinities of wetlands that could be declared as protected urban wetlands.
Decarbonisation Plan
In order to comply with Chile's nationally determined contribution under the Paris Agreement of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, different mechanisms have been structured, such as the previously mentioned Framework Law on Climate Changed, and the decarbonisation plan.
As roughly 78% of Greenhouse Gas emissions are generated from the energy sector, the government made the commitment to start the process of decarbonisation of the Chilean electrical matrix. For this purpose, a "Timeline for the withdrawal or reconversion of coal-powered plants" was presented, the main objective of which is to close the entirety of carbon power plants in Chile by 2040.
This timeline established the closure of the eight oldest plants by 2040, which amount to 19% of the capacity of Chilean coal power plants. The timeline also established the commitment to define dates by a task force formed every five years, which will allow the set-up of specific retirement schedules.
Moreover, in 2019, the President of Chile, Sebastián Piñera, announced the early closure of four coal-fired power plants by 2025, accelerating the decarbonisation plan, which contemplated their retirement by 2040.
This advance in the plan means 1,097 MW of power would be retired from the electric system and only ten of the 28 coal-fired plants would remain in operation between 2026 and 2040, equivalent to 20% of the current installed capacity.
Also, as a way to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote decarbonisation, the Chilean government is working on a strategy to develop and promote the green hydrogen industry as a long-term policy. An advisory council and a public consultation process, among other initiatives, have been carried out by the government in order to develop the strategy.
New Jurisprudential Developments
In 2012, the entrance into functions of specialised Environmental Courts initiated an adjustment period, where the limits of the authority of these courts and the superior courts of justice in relation to the Constitutional Action for Protection of Fundamental Rights have been put to the test.
In this sense, a changing balance has been generated between the matters that can be subject of a Constitutional Action, and the matters that can be subject to a claim before the Environmental Court.
At first, until approximately 2016, the Courts of Appeals ruled that the proper legal forum to review the legality of an Environmental Assessment Resolution (RCA) was the Environmental Court. On the contrary, where the challenge was linked to community participation, ILO Convention 169 or another issue directly affecting constitutional rights, then the Courts ruled that Constitutional Action was the proper remedy.
Then, the Constitutional Action regained it prior relevance, returning to the Courts and, especially, to the Supreme Court, an active role in the creation of environmental policy, seeking not only to rule on the cases under its jurisdiction, but also seeking an additional result. For example, on one occasion the Supreme Court ruled that rejection of a request for a community participation stage during the assessment of an Environmental Impact Declaration (DIA) constitutes a violation of the constitutional right to equal treatment under the law (eg, rulings of the Supreme Court in the cases Tronaduras Mina Invierno and Prospección Minera Terrazas – respectively, Cases No 55,203-2016 and No 104,488-2020). In another case, the Court held that a real estate project located adjacent to a Nature Sanctuary, that did not fit into any type of projects that must be environmentally assessed, should have been assessed under an Environmental Impact Study (EIA) (Dunas de Con Con Supreme Court, Case No 12,808-2019). Both of these examples demonstrate ways in which the Supreme Court has sought an additional result when issuing a ruling on a particular case, even when it entails going beyond the text of the law.
There are more instances of the creation of environmental policy by the Supreme Court – in some cases, even replacing the Environmental Authority. For example, in relation to a desalination project that had been assessed by a DIA and had been environmentally approved, the Court voided such RCA, stating that the project should have been assessed by an EIA instead (Modulos de Desalación Ventanas, Case No 22,356-2021).
In other cases, the Supreme Court has expanded legal requirements for the assessment of projects within the SEIA, whether by a broad interpretation of statutes in force, or by the imposition of new requisites, not established directly in Law No 19,300.
We find examples of the Supreme Court's broad interpretation of statutes in force in a recent ruling analysed above, where the Supreme Court ordered an environmental impact assessment of a real estate project located nearby a wetland that was in the process of being declared as a protected urban wetland pursuant to Law No 21,202 (Case No 21,970-2021).
With relation to the imposition of new requisites not directly provided in statutes in force, the Supreme Court ruled that an environmental impact assessment must cover not only impacts declared by project proponents, but also all other circumstances known to the authority that could have relevance in the effects of the project in the environment, such as climate change – thus proceeding to void the RCA of the operational continuation of a mining project, reopening the assessment process in the SEIA and ordering to assess the effects of the project in relation to climate change (Continuidad Operacional Cerro Colorado, Case No 8,573-2019).
We find another example in the recent ruling by the Supreme Court, related to a constitutional action filed by the workers of coal-fired thermal power plants that would lose their jobs as a result of the Decarbonisation Plan. On that occasion, the Court mandated the Ministry of Energy to implement, in the short term, a plan to help the career reinvention of those workers whose labour rights have been affected as a result of the Decarbonisation Plan (Case No 25,530-2021).
The creation of the Environmental Court has entailed a significant improvement on the access to environmental justice, enabling an institutional channel to resolve environmental conflicts through formal instances. However, from the perspective of project proponents, this means greater judicial challenges, where the results are often uncertain, and in a context where the Supreme Court has leaned towards a concept of environmental justice that goes beyond what is strictly stated in the relevant statutes.
In other words, in the past couple of years, the Supreme Court has led new approaches to environmental regulation, being a relevant actor with those administrative agencies that regulate different activities and investment projects. Often, the legal challenges mentioned above occur when a project has already been approved in the Environmental Impact Assessment System by an RCA, so that many times these challenges turn into a "new instance" of discussion on whether a determined investment project will – or will not – be executed.


Speaker Benjamin Cruz released 2 versions of a fiscal 2019 budget, each dealing with $145M shortfall. He says it's "responsible" versus "reckless."
Speaker Benjamin Cruz on Thursday released two versions of a proposed fiscal 2019 government of Guam budget that deals with a projected $145 million revenue shortfall because of the federal tax reform.
It's a choice between a responsible budget and a reckless one, the speaker said in a statement.
"I know that the 'powers that be' aren't acting like it, but we are driving toward the edge of a fiscal cliff and being completely honest with you is the only way I know to avoid going over," Cruz said in a statement.
Bill 323, which the speaker dubs the "responsible budget," would adopt a balanced approach — reducing spending authority while raising revenue through a 5.5 percent business privilege tax beginning Oct. 1.
Under this bill, total general fund revenue is at $797.38 million, with $125 million for tax refunds, leaving $672.384 million available for operations.
This bill appropriates $231.86 million to the Guam Department of Education, and $1 million to start the owner's agent engineer and architectural and engineering services to rebuild Simon Sanchez High School.
It appropriates $62.61 million for the Department of Public Health and Social Services; $34.43 million to the Guam Police Department; $26.463 million to the Department of Corrections; $30.628 million to the Guam Fire Department; $31.04 million to the Judiciary; and $7.646 million to the Legislature.
It appropriates $21.2 million from the Guam Memorial Hospital Pharmaceuticals Fund to GMH for 2019. Total appropriation for GMH is about $30 million, including $4.7 million from the Healthy Futures Fund, about $4 million from the general fund, and about $600,000 related to the labor and delivery ward renovation.
The alternative, which the speaker tags as the reckless budget, or a proposed Substitute of Bill 237, would cut approximately $145 million in spending for fiscal 2019. Cruz said this would force the end of basic services in education, health, and safety.
Under this proposal, total general fund revenue is $703.92 million, with $125 million for tax refunds, which leaves $578.92 million available for GovGuam operations.
This bill appropriates $217.209 million to the Guam Department of Education, and also provides $1 million to kick start the rebuilding of Simon Sanchez High School.
It appropriates $26.84 million to the Judiciary; and $6.54 million to the Legislature.
It also appropriates a total of about $30 million for GMH, but the sources are as follows: $15.42 million from the Guam Memorial Hospital Pharmaceuticals Fund; $14.57 million from the Healthy Futures Fund; and $600,000 related to the labor and delivery war renovation.
Under both versions of the bill, each enrolled charter school student is appropriated $6,500, but only specifically mentioned is up to 500 students for iLearn Academy Charter School and is up to 350 for Science is Fun and Awesome.
The budget versions don't mention Guahan Academy Charter School, but does mention students enrolled by charter schools chartered by the Guam Academy Charter Schools Council.
Cruz, chairman of the appropriations and adjudication committee, said the committee will hold a public hearing on the two bills at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m July 19 at the Guam Congress Building.
Cruz reiterates that whether the Guam Legislature passes a budget that raises some revenue or none at all, cuts and spending controls will be a mandatory part of any budget bill brought to the floor.
Cuts would include a prohibition on hiring, a freeze on pay increments, no funding for deputy directors, a general travel ban, and a spending reduction to each branch of government when compared to original fiscal 2018 levels.
Both versions of the 2019 budget also grant Gov. Eddie Calvo the executive authority to direct the full proceeds of the Pharmaceutical Fund to the Guam Memorial Hospital.


A removal asks for a thorough preparation and organisation! We would like to help you with our guide.
Download the extensive removal guide as a PDF here.
Write down the final numbers for your gas etc.
Does the unpacking take more time than you had thought, or is it not going according to plan? Does something need to be moved to a different place, or does artwork need to be hanged on the wall?
Please call +31 50 313 91 49 or send an email to info@jandejong.nl. Please fill in our quote form for an estimation of the price.


text:
London's mayoral election is an embarrassment
Nick Tyrone 23 April 2021 9:27 pm
Count Binface, a man who claims to be a 6,000-year-old 'independent space warrior', is running to be London mayor. In…
What can Laurence Fox hope to achieve with his bid for London mayor?
Nick Tyrone 7 March 2021 5:58 am
As if the politics of the Western world wasn't well past parody already, this weekend sees Laurence Fox throwing his…
Will there ever be another Conservative mayor of London?
Paul Bickley 24 June 2020 6:04 pm
Even in these strange political times, it looks very difficult for a Conservative politician to become Mayor of London. In…
No Khan do
Andrew Gilligan 26 November 2016 9:00 am
Let's try a thought experiment, shall we? If a senior adviser to my old boss, Boris Johnson, had celebrated John…
This London mayoral race will feature something new: boredom
Hugo Rifkind 6 February 2016 9:00 am
London, 2012. It's Olympic year, and east London is sprouting anew, and our city feels like the capital of the…


The Sheerness Dockyard Preservation Trust is working to repair and transform Dockyard Church, which stands at the entrance to the former Royal Dockyard on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent. The church, which was badly damaged by fire in 2001, is an architectural masterpiece and one of the most important buildings at risk in the south east of England.
In 2017 the Dockyard church project was awarded a provisional £4.75m grant by the National Lottery Fund, with £500,000 to develop a community-led project for transforming the building as a hub for business, arts and tourism that will help put Sheerness back on the map.
Our Round 1 pass from HLF for a Heritage Enterprise Grant unlocks £500,000 of development funding, with a further £4.25m becoming available on the successful completion of the development phase.
To help secure our £4.75m Heritage Lottery Fund grant, we're busy raising match funds from major funding bodies. Meanwhile, we need to raise funds to pay for the upkeep of the site and cover any legal and professional fees in relation to the bid. Small donations from generous individuals are helping cover the costs.
If you can make a contribution, please donate securely here using your card or PayPal account.
The Dockyard Church project is well underway, including plans to bring one of the world's largest architectural models back home to Sheerness.
Docks and fortifications at Sheerness left a lasting mark on British naval history, and shaped the character of a proud community.
As the Dockyard Church project progresses there will be lots of opportunities to get involved, from volunteering to spreading the word on social media.
Keep up to date with progress, get invited to events and join a growing community of people across the UK who care passionately about the heritage and future of Sheerness Dockyard.


text:
Q: NodeJS Reading Buffer Binary To Float I have a large DAT file that holds custom byte information,
And I've been tasked with converting the solution to JavaScript.
It's to make the solution be more single-language and convert to serverless cloud computing.
But, I've run into an issue with converting this test data.
The values supposed to return a float,
But I can't seem to get the number converted correctly.
The sliced buffer output is <Buffer 40 82 e2 31 d6 d7 2e 8d>,
Which is supposed to return 604.274335557087
But actually returns 4.090111255645752.
And I'm at my wits end right now.
Any thoughts?

  fs.readFile(file, (err, data) => {

...
      // Read other buffer slice() values fine until this step.
      // Like: readInt8(), readIntBE(0, 4), readBigUInt64BE(0, 8)
...

      let FloatNumber = data.slice(start, end).readFloatBE();
      console.log('FloatNumber', FloatNumber);

...

  }

A: const buf = Buffer.from([0x40, 0x82, 0xe2, 0x31, 0xd6, 0xd7, 0x2e, 0x8d]);

console.log( buf.readDoubleBE(0) );
// Prints: 604.274335557087

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
"Justin Hatt is a multi-genre guitarist from Lansing, Michigan. Although his roots are in Pop, and Rock music during his time in high school is where his interest in classical and jazz guitar developed.
Through studying with Elden Kelly during his high school years Justin found himself adequately prepared to pursue music in college. During his time in undergraduate studies, Justin had the opportunity to work alongside the guidance of guitarist Christopher Rollins because of this Justin has an Associates Degree in Music from Lansing Community College (Lansing, MI), and a Bachelors Degree in Music from Olivet College (Olivet, MI).
Justin also just recently completed his Master's degree in Classical Guitar Performance from Eastern Michigan University's School of Music (Ypsilanti, MI). There he studied under the guidance of Dr. Nelson Amos, and Professor Jonathan Edwards.
Upon graduation from Eastern Michigan's School of Music and Dance Justin was accepted into Wayne State University's College of Music where he is pursing a second Master's in Jazz guitar performance.
Justin maintains a busy performance schedule often appearing as solo artist for a plethora of events including solo guitar gigs, church services, weddings, dinner parties, restaurants, recitals, chamber works, and more. Justin also often performs with live band groups, and jazz combos including the Lansing Community College Jazz Band, and Eastern Michigan Jazz combo.
Justin is also a busy educator; he has taught at several different institutions. He currently teaches at The Roth Academy of Music (Grand Ledge, MI) and Michigan's Music Academy (Plymouth, MI) as well as maintaining his own private studio. Justin's teaching style includes demystifying music theory, as well as instilling in his students the importance of learning theory. Justin aspires to teach music in a way that helps each student to their individual goals and needs. "I want each of my students to leave a lesson with something they didn't have before they walked in. Whether that's a new scale, approach, or concept. I want my students to get as much enjoyment out of music as I do."
You can book lessons with Justin through email. Justin offers in person, or virtual lessons for Guitar (any styles), and Ukulele
Check out some of these articles written about Justin:
Fox 47:
https://www.fox47news.com/yes/olivet-college-guitarist-justin-hatt-to-perform-senior-recital-april-14
Olivet College:
https://www.olivetcollege.edu/more-than-just-rock-n-roll-senior-guitarist-justin-hatt-brings-classical-music-to-life/
''A melody softly soaring through my atmosphere''
-Benjamin Gibbard
''Lean your body forward slightly to support the guitar against your chest, for the poetry of the music should
resound in your heart''
-Andrés Segovia
''Without music, life would be a mistake''
''Music is... A higher revelation than all Wisdom and Philosophy''
-Ludwig Van Beethoven
"My mission as a musician is to enlighten the world on how magical and inspiring music can be. Furthermore, I'd like to showcase just how organic of an experience not only playing, but creating music can be. Overall, when I play music, I want to inspire all individuals around me and evoke the purest of all human emotion. Music has truly been a blessing to my life, and I want to instill that same blessing unto others".
Able to play:
Piano/keyboard
Able to perform a wide variety of genres, including but not limited to:
Proficient in:
Finger Picking
Flat Picking
Solo Work
Ensemble Work
© 2022 by Justin Hatt Music.


At the Law Offices of Durham and Ng we understand that your family is the most important thing. We carefully discuss with each of our clients their options after evaluating your specific circumstances. In many cases we are able to resolve most of the issues with out a contested trial. However, we can not control what the other side wants to do. In some cases we are required to proceed to trial based on the other side's actions. Call (888) 648-4888 for a free consultation, no obligation.


A North Carolina law passed in 2011 requires students playing sports who have suspected brain injuries to leave the game and not return to practice or future games until a medical professional has approved. This law applies to middle and high school students.
Although deaths from high school sport accidents have declined, football players are facing a growing risk of brain injury. Each player has the potential of experiencing a fatal injury, however statistics show that tackling is responsible for the majority of catastrophic injuries.
High school football players might not necessarily be injured because of another player. Negligent coaching and failure to educate players about the proper methods of blocking and tackling leaves students in vulnerable positions. It's illegal to block with your head, but officials are seeing less enforcement of this rule. Improper skill education, combined with helmet use and kickoffs are believed to be contributing to more football injuries for high school students.
Accident attorneys at Brent Adams & Associates help families in NC with injured students receive compensation for medical treatment, disability or impairment. Parents are often confused about the complicated injury laws that affect sports injuries that took place on school property or at school events. Our injury lawyers can explain in simple terms how these laws will affect your child's NC injury claim. Call for a free review of your NC injury claim at 800.849.5931.


text:
Склероте́ста (от  — твёрдый, жёсткий и  — скорлупа) — самый нижний слой семенной кожуры. Образован одревесневшими толстостенными клетками. Обычно располагается под слоем сочной саркотесты.

Встречается у саговников и некоторых других голосеменных.

Литература

Ссылки
 https://web.archive.org/web/20060623111459/http://botany.upol.cz/prezentace/vasut/pinophyta.pdf

Семя
Анатомия растений

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Marlon Brando not only stars in but also directs this psychological Western. He plays an outlaw seeking to settle a score with a former partner, now sherif, who abandoned him years ago during a bank robery!
Organza Givenchy for women 3.3 OZ (100 ML).
Click the button below to add the One Eyed Jacks (DVD) to your wish list.


all of his cousins, he does not. he does not.
afrose fatima ahmed (Seattle) is a hybrid Texan-Washingtonian who writes poems on emerald city streets and at the tops of evergreen trees. she is the daughter of Muslim immigrants from India. Her body and her art live in liminal spaces: polar US borderlands, the division between land and sea, the place where urban density drops off into rural solitude. afrose comes to poetry as just one avenue for creating experiences of beauty and communion for herself and other people. her writing emphasizes all the senses and acknowledges a world in which humans are suffering and experiencing bliss against wild landscapes that are simultaneously living and dying.
Artwork: 'Blue Heat', Wildfire Collection, William Michael Zuk.
Society (VVALS) that provides bursary awards to post secondary art students. His artwork can be found in the permanent collections of the University of Victoria; Government House Foundation of British Columbia, and recently, the Museum Collection of the Bienal De Gravura do Douro, Alijo, Portugal.
For more information, see www.zukart.ca and www.intotheice.ca.


WEAR Babywearing conference is coming to Chicago IL May 27-29 2016. WEAR will take place at the Westin Michigan Avenue in Chicago, IL and runs for 3 days of babywearing goodness. Events take place Friday May 27 – Sunday May 29th and attendants can purchase a one, two or three day pass. Attendees are welcome to bring their babies and even their kindergartners! With over 30 exhibitors attending plus regular events and happenings, this will be packed with babywearing goodness. Want to go? I'm giving away 2 3-day passes… a $200 Value! Better yet, you can use my MommyCon Coupon Code STJEL16 to save on WEAR passes!
Disclosure; This is not a sponsored post. Chances of winning are based on number of entrants. Not associated with facebook, twitter, instagram, google or other social media which this is promoted on. Mama Banana's Adventures is not responsible for sponsors who do not fulfill prizes, lots or stolen prizes. Open to legal residents 18+ void where prohibited.


Oscar had a lot of fun working with Reading based rockers The Amazons on this incredibly energetic performance video. Shot on beautiful 16mm and then painstakingly animated frame-by-frame, scratching and marking directly on the negative, it is a beautifully crafted and viscerally energetic spectacle. Check it out in all its scratchy glory here.


A smooth, creamy sauce made with a blend of Monterey Jack, Cheddar and Blue cheeses that can be used in multitudes of ways – hot and cold sandwiches, burgers, wraps, dips and more. Can elevate any menu without increasing cost of goods. You will find endless uses to fit almost every part of your menu at any daypart. Mix with hot water. No boiling required.
Cheese Blend [Monterey Jack Cheese (Cultured Milk, Salt, Enzymes), Whey, Cheddar Cheese (Cultured Milk, Salt, Enzymes), Reduced Lactose Whey, Maltodextrin, Canola Oil, Salt, Disodium Phosphate, Blue Cheese (Cultured Milk, Salt, Enzymes), Nonfat Dry Milk, Citric Acid], Modified Food Starch, Whey, Coconut Oil, Corn Syrup Solids, Salt, Less Than 2% Of Each Of The Following: Sodium Caseinate, Potassium & Sodium Phosphate, Sugar, Mono & Diglycerides, Yeast Extract, Citric Acid, Disodium Inosinate, Silicon Dioxide (Anticaking).


From 2011 to 2013, Jason was responsible for administering the Excellence in Research Australia (ERA) submission at Murdoch University, Perth. The ERA initiative by the Australia Research Council (ARC) aims to identify and promote excellence across the full spectrum of research activity in Australia's higher education institutions. The indicators used in ERA include a range of metrics such as citation profiles, which are common to disciplines in the natural sciences, and peer review of a sample of research outputs, which is more broadly common in the humanities and social sciences. The data submitted by universities covers all eligible researchers and their research outputs.
Jason's role at Murdoch University was to develop original online tools and services which linked major citation and peer review research assets, visualised research trends, calculated relative citation impact, and analysed the performance and coverage of scholarly outcomes with regards to national and international benchmarks for individual fields of research (FoRs). The tools he created allowed effective consultation between the parties involved in the submission, the discovery of new assessable FoRs, and enabled effective error checking. These tools integrated staff data from Murdoch University's internal HR system, publication and grant data from Murdoch University's IRMA suite (the Integrated Research Management Application), Discipline Matrix data and ERA rules from the ARC, up-to-date citation data from SciVerse Scopus (a bibliographic database containing abstracts and citations for academic journal articles) including ten years of ranking data for 22,000 journals, library holding data from WorldCat (a union catalogue that itemises the collections of 72,000 libraries in 170 countries and territories), and supplementary data from Google Scholar (a web search engine that indexes the full text of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines).
Applied across all of Murdoch University's research activities, these tools were used by research leaders, deans and the executive to more effectively evaluate and assign patents, grants, publications, explanatory statements and non-traditional research outputs within the context of ERA2 reporting requirements. As a result of this work Murdoch University had only a tiny number of submission errors and was one of the first institutions to complete its submission process. Overall, Murdoch University's assessed (4 digit) units of evaluation rated 'at world standard' or above rose from 65% in 2010 to 85% in 2012. The online suite is now known as 'Research Q.E.D.' ('Quite Easily Done'). More details of this work can be viewed on the 'Design & Development' page.