This is an opportunity to incorporate aspects that were not considered relevant in the last update or that were left out altogether.

 

Back in 2020, when the first of the official NDCs was presented, it was pointed out that the document made no mention of the protection of glaciers. And not only that, in its more than 50 pages the concept (like snow and ice) was not mentioned at all. This, despite the fact that these ice masses are fundamental as climate indicators, regulators of local temperature and essential water sources in the central zone of the country, where the majority of the population lives. 

 

This is contrary to the recommendations made by the National Water Board set up under the auspices of the Scientific Committee on Climate Change convened by the government of the time. These recommendations state that it is essential for Chile to “integrate the environmental component into water law and management through the adoption of regulations to protect glaciers and peat bogs.” This is contained in the document Scientific Evidence and Climate Change in Chile: Summary for Decision Makers, produced by a network of more than 600 scientists from all disciplines and regions of Chile, primarily from universities and academic research centers, but also from public and private organizations.

 

In Chile's current draft proposal for the 2025 NDC, glaciers do appear. Although only as context for the climate situation, no measures for their protection are included.

 

For this reason, the Santiago environmental group Chile Sustentable has proposed incorporating actions in this regard.

Absence of increase in non-conventional renewable energy
Unusually, the document also does not include any update on the target for an increase in renewable energy, although Chile has already far exceeded the commitment to energy generation from these sources. This is established in Law No. 20,698, which mandates a 20% share for these energies by 2025. With this, it turns its back on the agreement included in COP 28 to triple the goal of renewable and clean energy by 2030.

In this regard, the organization is demanding in its observations to the draft NDC 2025 that “Chile commits to an ERNC-based energy generation target consistent with the 2050 Energy Policy and consistent with the draft Law on the Promotion of Renewable Energies currently in progress, which sets a target of 60% ERNC by 2030. This is also consistent with the ambition assumed at COP 28. 

In the same vein, in relation to “decarbonization,” Chile Sustentable proposes the inclusion of “a commitment to gradually increase the tax on emissions with the aim of reaching a cost equivalent to the social cost of carbon by 2030 or 2035, the updated amount of which is set by the Ministry of Social Development at 70, 540 CLP/Ton CO2 eq (pesos per ton of carbon dioxide equivalent)."
 

Another negative aspect of the NDC 2025 draft bill is that it maintains the measure that allows reforestation with exotic species, with the aim of capturing CO2, without requiring them to constitute permanent forest cover, so that all this vegetation mass can be deforested in a medium-term cycle. This can increase CO2 emissions and soil erosion, in addition to the conflicts over water that these plantations bring with them.

 

In this regard, through the citizen observation process, the eco-group Chile Sustentable is advocating that “commitments only consider reforestation with native species and eliminate the possibility of reforestation without permanent cover."

 

When the government of Gabriel Boric came to power, the nation's environment ministry committed to expanding the current area of official protection of terrestrial and inland aquatic ecosystems by at least 1 million hectares by 2030 and to ensuring that, by that date, all state protected areas have management plans in place, with instruments for adaptation to climate change.

 

In addition, to include the just socio-ecological transition in the document, so that the economic and social costs of facing the climate crisis do not fall on the most vulnerable sectors. However, on this last point, the NDC 2025 is limited to committing that “the National Strategy for a Just Socio-Ecological Transition 2025 - 2035” will be implemented, which to date does not include a thorough diagnosis of the environmental liabilities left by polluting industries and coal-fired power plants in the municipalities of Tocopilla, Mejillones, Quintero-Puchuncaví, Coronel and Huasco. For this reason, it is imperative that concrete closure plans for the units still in operation be incorporated into this climate management instrument, as well as an Action Plan for the remediation and repair of the environmental and social liabilities in the five municipalities where the thermoelectric power plants are concentrated.