Territorial climate strategy
Introduction
Law 21,455, climate change framework law, is a Chilean regulatory body that regulates the institutionality of climate change in Chile and the instruments that allow it to be managed. The law established the transition towards a development low in greenhouse gas emissions and other climate forcings, until achieving and maintaining neutrality of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, adaptation to climate change, reducing vulnerability and increasing resilience to its adverse effects, and requires compliance with the international commitments assumed by the State of Chile on the matter.
The law began its legislative processing in January 2020, at the end of the second government of Sebastián Piñera, and was promulgated on May 30, 2022 by President Gabriel Boric, being published on June 13, 2022. It has been considered by experts as "a new stage of environmental law" in Chile.[1].
History
Background
Chile is a country highly vulnerable to climate change, meeting seven of the nine vulnerability criteria set out by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC): low-lying coastal areas, arid and semi-arid areas, forest areas, territory susceptible to natural disasters, areas prone to drought and desertification, urban areas with air pollution problems and mountainous ecosystems.[2] A report from the Library of National Congress in 2019 reported that this vulnerability confronts Chile with increased temperatures, precipitation and extreme climate events, loss of biodiversity, reduction of water resources, effects on health, damage to infrastructure, difficulties in accessing energy, transfer of farming areas from north to south, reduction in fishing resources, decrease in tourism, and impact on the quality of life in cities.[3].
In this scenario, Chile approved the 2015 Paris agreement through supreme decree No. 30, of 2017, of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs "Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Chile)"), which established the implementation of national actions voluntarily committed through nationally determined contributions (NDC), which are updated every five years. In this context, Chile presented its first NDC in 2015, committing to achieve progress in climate change mitigation, adaptation, capacity building, technology transfer and financing.[4].