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Does Chile have Legislation that insures weak sustainability of Copper Mining? I. Definition of Weak Sustainability In first Place, you must discuss what the concept of Weak Sustainability consists of. Here, the main point is that Weak Sustainability establishes that all forms of capital are more or less substitutes for one another; thus, what is important for sustainability in a weak sense is that total capital stok must be constant. It is not necessary to maintain natural capital constant. Thus, weak sustainability allows for the depletion or degradation of natural resources, so long as such depletion is offset by increases in the stocks of other forms of capital. II. Analysis of Chilean Legislation Given the definition of weak sustainability you must look for legislation or regulation that insures that copper depletion, a reduction in natural capital, is offset by an increase in another form of capital. It is necessary to find a general policy that applies to all copper mining activities; it is not sufficient to find individual private initiates, since the question applies to the country. The only legislation that insures weak sustainability of Copper Mining in Chile is the Law that establishes a Royalty tax, Ley N° 20.026. There are other laws that contribute to sustainability by minimizing environmental impacts of the mining extraction, such as air and water quality legislation and legislation that requires environmentally friendly closure of mining activities. However, none of these insure that the reduction in copper stock is replaced by other forms of capital. The royalty exists under Chilean law only since June 2005. The law established tax that is applied to mining companies with annual sales exceeding 12 metric tons of fine copper. The tax is charged in a phased manner and is based on taxable operational income of the mining operator. The Law provides that the President must develop a national innovation strategy for competitiveness, covering the fields of science, technology and human resource development. This strategy will count with the support of National Innovation Council for Competitiveness, which proposes the uses of the Fund on an annual basis and establishes actions and initiatives to strengthen the competitive capacities of all regions of Chile. With this brief description it is clear that the Royalty Law ensures for the transformation of natural capital (copper) into human made capital.
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