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The Chilean Climate Change Law excludes tree monocultures as a solution to the climate crisis, offering an opportunity for resilience and climate mitigation in Latin America. The Chilean experience with mega-fires in extensive, homogeneous forest plantations provides important lessons that could inform climate policies in other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We perform an ex-ante life cycle assessment, integrating cradle-to-gate greenhouse gas emissions into an off-grid energy system model. By applying a multi-objective optimization, minimizing both costs and carbon dioxide equivalent (CO 2 e) emissions, we find the Pareto boundary between these two goals. As a case study, we chose the power supply to an astronomical observatory in Chile, using mostly solar power and energy storage in batteries and hydrogen. We compare the ex-ante study to a prior ex-post life cycle assessment, and furthermore dive into sensitivities of our model regarding component lifetimes and costs. We find (i) low-hanging fruit in lowering emissions with small cost increases, (ii) ex-ante life cycle assessments' possibility to find less CO 2 e intensive power systems compared to ex-post conducted studies, (iii) a pronounced sensitivity of the optimization model on assumed lifetimes of energy storage components. This study shows the importance of including life cycle CO 2 e emissions into the optimization objective of energy system models. This method uncovers the environmental and economic trade-offs associated with high shares of renewable energies in off-grid energy systems. • We integrate life cycle assessment (LCA) into an off-grid energy system optimization. • The applied case study powers a remote astronomical telescope in Chile. • A multi-objective optimization finds Pareto curves at varying costs and lifetimes. • Low-hanging fruit shows low additional system costs to reduce CO 2 e impacts. • In contrast, a separate LCA did not find such trade-offs in costs and CO 2 e emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changing environmental data analytics modify perceptions and policies on resources, particularly in terms on mining legitimisations. Enhanced data products are critical for improved planning and execution of extractive activities. Improved data in the mining industry tends to increase definitions and scale levels thus segregating environmental features from each other. This tends to be in conflict with local contingent appreciations of resources and their interactions with broader environmental features and conditions. Data scales and availabilities influence which resource perception dominates and so how mining is justified or antagonised successfully. This paper contributes to discussions that explore resource materialities from analyses of lithium mining. It focuses on the Atacama Salt Flat in contexts of lithium mining and material metrics, and separates itself from focuses on global availability of reserves by taking a narrower discussion on chemical differences that contour abundancy, variety and rarity of materials. This paper is based on fieldwork conducted in 2019 in Chile. It presents the current state of social appreciations on lithium materialities in and around places of extraction in Chile. Centrally, it unpacks an analysis of the social values of lithium and sets grounds for thinking about how a social value of a material becomes prevalent over other social values, particularly in contexts of global material needs and local environmental change for climate change mitigation solutions. • Affordances of data products on the Atacama Salt Flat sustain social values that favour lithium extraction. • Legitimisations to extract materials in the global south benefit from data products that increase metrics and categories of materials. • Contestations to lithium mining in San Pedro de Atacama use dominant discourses that better sustain extraction. • Environmental policy-making need to scrutinise data products from the outset of social values. • Data-driven responsible material sourcing should integrate social value assessments • There is no clear-cut definition of social value respective to the environment and progress on its understanding is context and place specific. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Climate change threatens the carbon sink capacity of forests in Chile. • Industrial plantations do not contribute towards achieving carbon neutrality. • Wildfire emissions exceed the nationally determined contributions mitigation. • Climate actions should diversify including a wider range of nature based solutions. • Conservation and restauration of wetlands can contribute to carbon neutrality. As president of the Climate Change Conference of the Parties, Chile has advocated for developing ambitious commitments to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions to achieve carbon-neutrality by 2050. However, Chile's motivations and ambitious push to reach carbon-neutrality are complicated by a backdrop of severe drought, climate change impacts (i.e., wildfires, tree mortality), and the use of industrial plantations as a mitigation strategy. This has become more evident as widespread and severe wildfires have impacted large areas of industrial plantations, transforming the land-use, land-use change, and forestry sector from a carbon sink to a net carbon source. Consequently, Chile must diversify its climate actions to achieve carbon-neutrality. Nature-based solutions, including wetlands-peatlands and oceans, represent alternative climate actions that can be implemented to tackle greenhouse gas emissions at a national level. Diversification, however, must guarantee Chile's long-term carbon sequestration capacity without compromising the ecological functionality of biodiverse tree-less habitats and native forest ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE) are behind climate change. In Chile, food system is the second source of GHGE. Changing Chileans dietary patterns is key to reducing such emissions. There is geographic variability in terms of dietary patterns within the country. Here we investigated the dietary GHGE in five different geographical zones, along with the main contributing food groups and socio-demographic variables. Data for 4676 individuals were obtained from the 2010–2011 National Survey of Food Consumption. The carbon footprint value of each food was obtained from studies using life cycle assessment methodology. Median and percentiles of dietary GHGE were calculated, expressed in kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent per person per day (kgCO 2 eq/person/d) and compared among zones by Kruskal-Wallis and Dunn's tests. Logistic regression models were fitted to analyzed associations among the variables of interest and quartiles of GHGE. Diet-related GHGE ranged from 3.50 (2.34–5.12) in the North-Central Zone to 4.66 (2.89–6.69) kgCO 2 eq/person/d in the South zone. Meat accounted for 53–58% of the GHGE in all the zones, followed by dairy products with 12–13%. Higher GHGE were significantly associated with energy intake (kcal/d) in all of the zones, with high socioeconomic level in the North-Central, South and Metropolitan zones, and with urban residence in the South-Central zone. Tailored policies considering geographic variability are warranted to promote healthy and sustainable diets among the Chilean population. • Differences in dietary greenhouse gas emissions were determined among five Chilean geographical zones. • South and Metropolitan region showed the highest GHGE while North showed the lowest. • Meat and dairy were the most contributing foods in all zones. • GHGE were positively associated with energy intake in all zones & with high socioeconomic level in three zones. • The promotion of sustainable diets in Chile must consider the geographical specificities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A framework is proposed to find the optimal PV-BESS (Battery Energy Storage System) to operate a SAG mill. • Robust results are obtained with stochastic modeling considering solar variability. • The rock hardness variability has an impact on the sizing of the PV and BESS system. Grinding is one of the most energy-demanding processes of copper mines. Declining ore grades and harder rocks will further intensify this demand. Periods of stressed copper prices, high energy costs and climate change mitigation targets additionally motivate the search for alternative energy sources in mining. In Chile, many copper operations are located in the Atacama Desert, hence solar energy systems are an attractive solution. However, the mineral hardness is variable and uncertain in time and space, which adds challenges to planning energy systems with high solar shares. More specifically, here a stochastic optimization model is developed. It sizes the solar photovoltaic (PV), battery energy storage system (BESS) and the contracted power, based on the solar radiation, mineral hardness, and costs. Using Markov Chains, different years of solar radiation are generated from historical records. These solar scenarios are used to test the impact of individual years with long periods of cloudy/rainy days on the sizing of the system, in contrast to planning with an average year or planning with many-year time horizons in a stochastic approach. The novelties lie in the developed model, and in understanding the impact of the uncertainty and variability of rock hardness and solar irradiation on the optimal sizing of the PV-BESS system and the power capacity contract. Furthermore, the impact of a larger variability of ore hardness is evaluated in one scenario. PV-BESS can cost-effectively provide energy to the grinding mill. Different planning approaches lead to significant differences in the recommended power supply. In contrast to planning with the average solar year, using a conservative solar year (many cloudy days) yields significantly smaller sizes of PV and BESS (20% and 55%) and a higher reliance on the grid (larger contracts and imports); and the stochastic approach follows a similar line (10% and 25% smaller). Despite its increased grid dependency, the one-year stochastic approach provides more robust solutions regarding costs and sizes (avoiding penalties). The variability of the rock hardness also impacts the size of all components of the PV-BESS system, especially the battery energy capacity. Its relevance for battery sizing motivates to perform further studies with a focus on the uncertainty and variability of the ore. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phasing out coal-fired power plants is one of the most urgent steps needed to achieve the 1.5- or 2-degree target in the Paris Agreement. Many developed and developing countries have announced their plans to phase out coal from their electricity sectors. Managing the social and economic impacts of this energy transition is key to achieving political and social acceptability and pursuing environmental and social development hand in hand. As one of the leading countries committed to decarbonization in Latin America, Chile has launched a plan to phase out coal by 2050. To analyze the impacts of phasing out coal in Chile on jobs and value added, we combined an Input-Output analysis with ad-hoc labor surveys. We analyzed four contrasting electricity production scenarios that the Chilean government used to frame the policy debate: the current Long-Term Energy Plan (a baseline), and three scenarios that phase out coal-based generation by 2030 or 2050. Our findings show that coal phase-out will contribute to net job creation on the national level, adding 23–26 thousand jobs by 2030. In addition, value-added in the power generation sector will also grow by 1.7 billion dollars above today's levels as a result of the coal phase-out. These overall positive numbers mask a gross job destruction of 4.4 thousand jobs in coal power plants, concentrated in a few communities. In the most affected community, 7.1% of the population works in a coal power plant. Negative impacts in coal-reliant communities require special attention to ensure a just transition towards a clean power generation system. The results of this study highlight the need for strategic policy development that supports a smooth transition to a low-carbon economy, taking into account the associated national and local impacts. Our study also contributes to the literature about the evaluation framework of coal phase-out projects around the world, improving the understanding of their associated impacts beyond the case study country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and its absorption across the ocean surface will alter natural variations in pH and temperature levels, occurring in coastal upwelling ecosystems. The scallop Argopecten purpuratus , one of the most economically important species farmed in northern Chile, has been shown to be vulnerable to these environmental drivers. However, the regulatory responses at the gene-level of scallops to these climate stressors remain almost unknown. Consequently, we used an orthogonal experimental design and RNAseq approach to analyze the acute effects of variability in pH and temperature on gene expression in the muscle tissue of A. purpuratus. In respect to control conditions (pH ~ 8.0/ 14 °C), the influence of low pH (~ 7.7) and temperature (14 °C) induced the activation of several genes associated with apoptotic signaling pathways and protein localization to plasma membrane. Elevated temperature (18 °C) and pH (~8.0) conditions increased the expression of transcripts associated with the activation of muscle contraction, regulation, and sarcomere organization effects on muscle tissue. In scallops exposed to low pH and elevated temperature, the genes expressed were differentially associated with the oxidation-reduction process, signal translation, and positive regulation of GTPase activity. These results indicated that the differentially expressed genes under the experimental conditions tested are mainly related to the mitigation of cellular damage and homeostasis control. Our results add knowledge about the function of the adductor muscle in response to stressors in scallops. Furthermore, these results could help in the identification of molecular biomarkers of stress necessary to be integrated into the aquaculture programs for the mitigation of climate change. [Display omitted] • Variability in pH and temperature levels lead to differential gene expression in the adductor muscle of the scallop Argopecten purpuratus. • Differentially expressed genes under low pH and elevated temperatures conditions are mainly related to the mitigation of the cellular damage and the homeostasis control. • Natural variability in upwelling areas may promote potential mechanisms of plasticity in this farmed scallops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mitigation of climate change requires developing alternatives to fossil fuels, while simultaneously looking for ways to increase the resilience of our socioecological systems especially those reliant on ecosystem goods and services. Forest biomass is receiving increased attention as a source of renewable fuel; yet at the same time, increased use of wood fuels raises health concerns about the adverse effects of pollution and as a possible contributor to deforestation and forest degradation. For these reasons, where people use wood fuel, policies are designed to shift people away from wood fuel and using forest biomass and up the energy ladder, typically toward fossil fuels. Using a case study from Chile, where air pollution from residential firewood combustion has become a serious issue, we show that while such policies might reduce pollution in the short term, they are unlikely to improve either human well-being or the sustainability of resource use in the long term. Instead of policies designed to reduce or eliminate wood fuel use, by examining the interlinked energy and resource subsystems and socioeconomic context within which wood fuel is used, we argue that a combination of policy interventions targeting the adoption of energy-saving technologies, while still maintaining wood fuel as a primary energy source, would yield higher economic, social, and environmental benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Methodology for determining the energetically optimal walls U-value was presented. • Importance of considering future energy consumption in design of buildings was shown. • Future-oriented design demonstrated a reduction of the insulation carbon footprint. • The importance of considering microclimatic features in the design of dwellings was shown. In the context of climate change, it is difficult to maintain the energy performance of houses, especially in countries with building codes that regulate the maximum allowed amount of energy that a building can consume. For this reason, there is a need for a review of building standards and adaptation to the context of energy performance in planning future projects. The objective of this research was to ascertain the thermal transmittance of external walls for single-family homes and to establish the energetically optimal thickness of thermal insulation by using an energy simulation to maintain heating energy consumption in conditions of climate change while following the state regulations in the Los Ríos region of Chile. It was demonstrated that for each time period and in each geographical location of the region the optimal U-value of the external walls is different. For a house to have a heating energy consumption corresponding to 90 kWh/m2/year, it must have an optimal average U-value of the walls of 0.49 ± 0.11 W/m2K (year 2006 in the study region); however, for the period 2035–2050, this value is expected to reach 0.78 ± 0.14 W/m2K. In addition, it was shown that designing the house with an energy performance perspective of 15 years helps to reduce the carbon footprint of the use of thermal insulation in the walls by 20%. The results obtained demonstrate the importance of considering the effects of future climate change in the housing design process in terms of both energy and environmental. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]