Global health. The current scenario and future perspectives

90 their environment and to access justice when these rights have been violated”. It establishes the duty to guarantee the participation of communities, in a significant and early manner, in the different instances of environmental decision-making processes. This agreement was signed in 2018 by 22 countries in the region, and even though in 2020, Chile publicly announced its rejection of the agreement, one of the first actions of the new government that took office in 2022 was to sign the message for national adhesion to the Escazú Agreement. Its definitive adoption requires the approval of the National Congress, so it will have to go through both chambers before it becomes law. It is expected that political wills align with this valuable opportunity to position Chile once again as a relevant actor in the environmental issue at international level, so that the agreement is finally signed and the country can move towards greater environmental protection to ensure full and effective implementation of the rights of access to information, public participation and justice for communities. Finally, an economy based on continuous expansion of material needs and consumerism is environmentally and ecologically unsustainable. Furthermore, it is socially problematic and economically unstable. It is crucial to remember that the environmental consequences described in this chapter are primarily caused by factors that promote overproduction and overexploitation of resources to satisfy consumption needs at national and global level. Future generations will be the ones to suffer the consequences of today’s unsustainable consumption patterns: this disconnection between those who benefit and those who suffer the consequences is deeply unjust, which is why redoubling efforts to lead humanity towards a new trajectory of care and management of natural systems becomes not only an urgent environmental priority but also a moral imperative. This calls for changes in the current paradigm of the dominant economic system. In that sense, economic development must be limited in favor of environmental care and perhaps it is time to start thinking about the development of a new macroeconomics for sustainability: an economic engine that for its stability does not depend on the incessant growth of consumption and the expansion of production. For now, despite some global efforts, progress towards environmental protection and sustainability remains painfully slow and tends to stagnate in the global commitment to economic growth.