![\"A](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Chile-new-Constitution-celebrations_PM.jpeg\")
<\/a>The president-elect, who is currently finishing his second term as a congressman, made environmental and climate change issues central to his campaign<\/a>. He pledged to create \u201cChile’s first green government\u201d, and will arrive in office with a number of challenges to prove these credentials. In the first few months, he will have to implement a new law on climate change, reform the law governing water use and tackle a mega-drought<\/a> so severe that it has even cast doubt on the country\u2019s commitment to close its coal-fired power plants<\/a>.<\/p>\n Elsewhere, there are other significant commitments to fulfil: to put an end to Chile\u2019s \u201csacrifice zones<\/a>\u201d, areas of the country impaired by chronic socio-environmental and economic problems; to create a state company to regulate the extraction and use of lithium; and to promote a new model of sustainable development.<\/p>\n All this comes amid a broader national debate over the creation of the country\u2019s new constitution<\/a>. By the end of this year, the country will have to vote on whether to approve the new constitution, which is currently being drafted. The inclusion of elements such as plurinationalism<\/a>, which will recognise indigenous peoples\u2019 rights to self-determination, and the recognition of the rights of nature are already on the horizon.<\/p>\n \u201cBy declaring that he wants to be the first environmentalist government, Boric is showing that the times when economic development, well-being and progress were antagonistic to environmental protection and human rights are long gone, that it is not possible to go backwards on climate action, and that he intends to align all his ministers with this view,\u201d says Valentina Dur\u00e1n, director of the Environmental Law Research Center at the Universidad de Chile.<\/p>\n A broad, cross-ministry environmentalism was one of the most striking attributes of Gabriel Boric’s recently selected cabinet<\/a> of 24 ministers, 14 of whom are women.<\/p>\n One of the strongest names is that of Maisa Rojas, a renowned climate scientist who will take over as the new Minister for the Environment. \u201cMy role is to make this the country\u2019s first environmentalist government,\u201d she said<\/a> in one of her first interviews since her appointment.<\/p>\n Rojas has worked on several reports<\/a> of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), including as lead author and coordinator of the first part of the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6<\/a>), the largest work on climate science to date.<\/p>\n Although politics is a new world for her, she has been involved in a number of different capacities for some time. She was appointed by the outgoing government of Sebasti\u00e1n Pi\u00f1era as a coordinator of the scientific advisory committee for COP25, which was originally due to be hosted in Chile in 2019. Just a few months ago, she was invited by the Constitutional Convention \u2013 the body in charge of drafting the country\u2019s new constitution \u2013 to present the findings of the latest IPCC report, a key presentation for the subsequent approval of the \u201cclimate emergency\u201d by the authority.<\/p>\n Rojas has already defined her priorities<\/a>: implementing the new law on climate change (currently in its final stages of legislative procedure), promoting the newly established service for biodiversity and protected areas, and \u201cworking for the sacrifice zones\u201d.<\/p>\n In her previous role as director of the Centre for Climate and Resilience Research (CR2), the new minister was an active participant in the legislative debate for the climate law, which establishes Chile\u2019s commitment to be carbon neutral by 2050. \u201cIf you ask me what is the most important action we should take, it is to have this law,\u201d she said during one of the legislative sessions.<\/p>\n Rojas also identified drought as one of the main challenges, acknowledging that it is an issue she will have to tackle in collaboration with other ministries, as decisions regarding water in Chile currently cross dozens of public bodies.<\/p>\n For Marcelo Mena, himself a former Minister for the Environment (2017\u20132018), \u201cwater scarcity must be tackled through inter-sectoral coordination. It is an important short-term issue, because socio-environmental conflicts associated with water are going to be increasingly frequent.\u201d<\/p>\n The ongoing, multi-decade mega-drought<\/a> in Chile has come to threaten the country\u2019s decarbonisation commitments. The Coordinador El\u00e9ctrico Nacional, the body that oversees the country\u2019s electricity system, has suggested postponing the closure of the Bocamina 2 and Ventanas 2 coal-fired power plants by one year, on the basis of avoiding a supply crisis due to the drought-driven drop in output at hydroelectric plants.<\/p>\n The person who will have to face these challenges and lead the decarbonisation agenda is the academic Claudio Huepe, who is leaving the Centre for Sustainable Energy and Development at Diego Portales University to take over as energy minister. Huepe is a member of Convergencia Social (Gabriel Boric’s party) and has been part of the president-elect\u2019s campaign since its early days.<\/p>\n For Ana Lia Rojas, executive director of the Chilean Association of Renewable Energies (ACERA), Huepe\u2019s immediate challenge as minister will be to confront the country\u2019s stretched electricity system. But beyond that, she says that what this government decides over the next four years will form \u201cthe basis of the regulatory design that will allow us to dedicate the next 25 years to moving towards a carbon-neutral economy and a 100% renewable electricity sector\u201d.<\/p>\n Although Chile has been a pioneer in renewable energy (wind and solar accounted for 21%<\/a> of all energy generated in 2021), the industry is concerned about the high level of wastage, as the amount of renewable energy that, due to a lack of infrastructure and operational issues, does not make it onto the grid to be consumed. In January of this year alone, 160 GWh<\/a> were \u201clost\u201d, more than the total registered in all of 2019.<\/p>\n In any case, renewable energy companies may look favourably on the new government and its commitment to decarbonisation. \u201cWe agree that there are many ways of decarbonisation, it is not just about removing coal and adding renewables, but it is nourished by many lines of action that are correctly contained in President Boric\u2019s programme,\u201d says Rojas.<\/p>\n The new government\u2019s energy programme recognises the construction of transmission lines and supply plants as key to the energy transition, in addition to establishing forums in different parts of the country to discuss \u201cjust transitions\u201d.<\/p>\n Other names of ministers also give a glimpse of the government\u2019s intended environmental character.<\/p>\n Juan Carlos Mu\u00f1oz will be at the Ministry of Transportation and Communications. With a PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering, Mu\u00f1oz was previously the director of the Centre for Sustainable Urban Development (CEDEUS). A keen cycling advocate, he has promoted a free public transport system.<\/p>\n One of his campaign promises was a \u201cdouble-zero\u201d transport agenda: an electric, emission-free, and fare-free public transport system for citizens, to be launched as a pilot in the southern city of Valdivia. Also on the agenda is an increase in fuel tax for industries and big polluters.<\/p>\n At the finance ministry, the renowned economist Mario Marcel will take control. He was president of the Central Bank of Chile from 2016 until this year and has had a long career in international organisations and working on financial policies, including under several previous Chilean governments.<\/p>\n In an interview, Marcel said<\/a>: \u201cWe have to start thinking about sustainable production, which is more competitive and which is becoming more evident every day. The whole world values the reduction of carbon emissions and the protection of the environment. Today, selling green products is more successful than selling grey products.\u201d<\/p>\n As president of the Central Bank, Marcel promoted the incorporation of climate change risks<\/a> into financial stability analyses. Moreover, during COP26, the new minister led the Central Bank in joining<\/a> an international alliance to \u201canalyse and quantify financial stability risks\u201d. And in November last year, Marcel met<\/a> with Professor Partha Dasgupta, a leading expert on the economics of biodiversity and the incorporation of ecosystem services into economic analysis.<\/p>\n Marcela Hernando, a doctor and member of Chile\u2019s parliament, will take over the mining ministry. Hernando will lead two important agendas that could mark a new path in Chile\u2019s mining policy: the creation of taxes on copper mining, which is expected to raise 1% of GDP, and the creation of a nationalised lithium company. This latter action aims to \u201cdevelop a new national industry for this strategic resource, with the involvement of communities and adding value to production,\u201d according to a government strategy document.<\/p>\n Lithium was the first point of conflict between the incoming and outgoing governments. In October, a call for tenders for the exploration and production of 400,000 tonnes of lithium was published<\/a>. Boric and Pi\u00f1era\u2019s mining teams met on the issue, with the incoming administration formally requesting a postponement of the tender, in order to incorporate criteria of community payback and investment in research and development. Although equivalent to 4.4% of the country\u2019s total lithium reserves, the tender actually represents 25%<\/a> of the areas available to be exploited, according to Willy Kracht, the new undersecretary of mining.<\/p>\n The Court of Appeals in Copiap\u00f3, a northern province where reserves are located, ordered a freeze<\/a> on the tender following an appeal for protection lodged by local communities. This was after it had already been assigned to the subsidiary of the Chinese multinational BYD and the local company Servicios y Operaciones Mineras del Norte.<\/p>\n The new foreign minister will be Antonia Urrejola, former president of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), which was immediately seen as a sign from Boric that his left-wing government will not sit comfortably with others in the region, such as Nicaragua and Venezuela.<\/p>\n While at the IACHR, Urrejola defended<\/a> the need for countries to join the Escaz\u00fa Agreement<\/a>, as a way to strengthen environmental public policies in the face of the climate emergency. Meanwhile Boric pledged<\/a> during his campaign to adhere to the agreement and send it to congress for ratification ahead of this year\u2019s Earth Day, on 22 April. Maisa Rojas also confirmed<\/a> this, assuring that \u201cthe signing of Escaz\u00fa is the first thing that will be done\u201d.<\/p>\n The first conference of the parties (COP) on the agreement, which will bring together the signatory countries, will be held in Santiago, at the headquarters of the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) between 20 and 22 April.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" President-elect Gabriel Boric\u2019s new government must address issues of decarbonisation, water crisis and lithium nationalisation, all while rewriting the country\u2019s constitution<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3882,"featured_media":50051031,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[761],"tags":[513,566,607],"hashtags":[],"country":[50000024],"class_list":["post-50051018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate","tag-carbon-emissions","tag-mining","tag-water-scarcity","country-chile"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDrought and carbon neutrality<\/h2>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/chile-transicio\u0301n-662x438-1.jpg\"){kind=spacer}
<\/a>The energy transition<\/h2>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/chile-drought-scaled.jpg\")
<\/a>Transport and the economy<\/h2>\n
The role of mining<\/h2>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Lithium-mining-Argentina-scaled.jpg\")
<\/a>The Escaz\u00fa Agreement<\/h2>\n