This week’s episode looks back at the results from Chile’s presidential election and assesses one of the bigger issues of 2021 in climate change. Gabriel Boric has pulled off a big left-wing victory against Jose Antonio Kast in the second round of the Chilean presidential election, but does the divided Congress mean that he will face a tricky road in passing his desired legislative programme? Why did the left-wing energy of the Constitutional Convention elections reappear in this second round after failing to materialise in the first? Was the increased turnout a big reason for the Boric victory?
The episode also takes a deeper dive into one of the biggest political themes of 2021 – climate change. In the year of COP26 in Glasgow, climate change and policies to combat it has been a theme at the ballot box and on political campaigns, but was it a clincher at the ballot box? Sam and Chern look at whether 2021 was a big year for climate politics or whether it was significantly less important than other issues like the pandemic and the economy. Was COP26 a success? Will climate activists be happy with climate consciousness, or is there still more political work to do? And is climate destined to be a larger issue in 2022 and beyond? All these questions and more answered in this week’s episode.
