Chile: the framework climate change law (21.455) sets a neutrality target for 2050

On 13 June 2022 Chile published framework climate change law No. 21.455, which sets a target of greenhouse gas emissions neutrality by 2050 at the latest. The date of the law's text is 30 May 2022, and the public promulgation ceremony took place on 5 June, on World Environment Day. The law has been in force since 13 June 2022.

Architecture of the law

According to the UNEP LEAP description, the law aims at a transition to low-emission development until emissions neutrality is reached and maintained in 2050, and establishes a legal framework for adaptation to climate change. The mitigation target is assessed every five years by the Ministry of the Environment. The main governance instruments are: the Long-Term Climate Strategy, the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), sectoral mitigation plans, which are to define actions that keep within the sectoral emission budget, sectoral adaptation plans and the National Report on Climate Action; regional and local instruments are also provided for.

Systems created by the law

The law establishes, among others, the National System for Access to Information and Citizen Participation on Climate Change, the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory System, the National Greenhouse Gas Projection System and the Voluntary Certification System for Greenhouse Gases and Water Use. The law also includes financial mechanisms and a sanctions regime.

Significance for methane and waste

Specific targets for the sectors in which methane arises (agriculture, waste, energy) will result from the sectoral emission budgets and mitigation plans; we do not analyse those documents here. For biogas, this means potential demand for solutions that reduce methane emissions from landfills, wastewater treatment plants and livestock farming, depending on the content of the sectoral plans.

Context

Forbes Chile reports that the government promulgated the law on 5 June 2022, on World Environment Day, and that the bill was submitted under President Sebastián Piñera. The law was published in the Diario Oficial No. 43.277 of 13 June 2022.

What this means for Poland and Europe

Framework climate laws with carbon budgets are a model familiar from several European countries. The Chilean example shows that the question of how absolutely binding a target and its deadline are can be a key point of dispute outside the EU as well.