The Government of Chile has embarked on a two-year ‘Mitigation Action Plans and Scenarios’ (MAPS) project, with CDKN’s support. The project aims to generate options for Chile to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions through a process of research and multi-sectoral involvement. The project will help guide public and private sector decision-making towards low carbon solutions. "Chile has achieved a comprehensive mandate from all the relevant Ministries, ensuring that this project has a full government mandate and hence the highest degree of relevance and legitimacy for the country" says Stefan Raubenheimer, Director of the International MAPS Programme, which supports the Chile project.

In the first stage of development, during the past few months, the project has swung into action. Research workshops involving academic researchers and national and international experts have been held, along with public seminars in Chile’s regions, and working sessions of the Scenario Building Group have taken place, some of them headed by the Minister of Environment.

Diego Luna, CDKN Project Manager for Chile, said, "the project is progressing steadily through a highly participatory and dynamic process that has called so far over 200 key players in building consensus."

Environment Minister María Ignacia Benítez explained that all these actions in Chile will include a broad range of possibilities, from specific sectoral measures, such as strengthening non-motorised transport, to others involving public policy, such as energy efficiency and a tax on carbon.

“All these mitigation options will be analysed in the project and integrated into potential future scenarios. We will also attempt to analyse the possible implications, in terms of a number of key indicators (social, economic and environmental) that such measures might entail", she added.

Studies are underway on the emissions trajectories “required by science” in Chile’s future, and seven sectoral studies are beginning. Together, the results of these seven studies will form the country’s emissions baseline. The project’s technical working groups progress their work in earnest, from mid-2012.

Chile’s MAPS project is part of a larger international MAPS programme, which is a collaboration among developing countries to establish the evidence base for long term transition to robust, carbon-efficient economies. Find out more on www.mapsprogramme.org.

For information on the Chile process (in Spanish), visit   www.mapschile.cl or read Lanzamiento del Proyecto “MAPS- Chile, Opciones de Mitigación para Enfrentar el Cambio Climático” to find out about the launch.

 Updates

-    July 2012: A total of eight technical meetings were held involving over 100 specialists in climate change sector, who actively participated in the so-called "Technical Working Groups". The "TWG" cover the following topics: generation and transmission of energy, mining and other industries; consumption commercial, public, residential, transportation and urban planning, forestry and land use, agriculture and land use, waste, and sectoral integration and economic modeling

-     August 2012: Preliminary study results, parameters and approaches proposed for modeling the baseline GHG emissions (to 2007), were presented on October 2th and 3rd ... and discussed issues relevant to the modeling of each of the sectors considered in the exercise. 

-     September 2012: On September 24th, the MAPS-Chile team held a third breakfast meeting with the CGE to present proposals for action in order to organize a) the reference line 2012 (similar scenario made to the 2007 baseline, but a starting point 2012) and b) the various mitigation scenarios. Again, there was generated a valuable discussion and relevant inputs, particularly around potential mitigation measures to be considered in future modeling.

-     October 2012:  The workshop "Greenhouse gas mitigation actions: from public to private sector" was held in Chile on October the 10th, allowing Government of Chile present its plans related to reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in the framework of NAMAs. During the gathering, it was shared the experience in this matter of some energy enterprises and also was discussed the best way for developing a National Register of Mitigation Actions. Read more

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