Diversifying Chile's climate action away from industrial plantations
Lara, Antonio
Ctr Climate & Resilience Res CR 2
Zamorano-Elgueta, Carlos
Ctr Climate & Resilience Res CR 2
Gomez-Gonzalez, Susana
Ctr Climate & Resilience Res CR 2
Vasquez-Lavin, Felipe
Ctr Climate & Resilience Res CR 2
Garreaud, Rene D.
Ctr Climate & Resilience Res CR 2
Rojas, Maisa
Ctr Climate & Resilience Res CR 2
Journal
Environmental Science and Policy
ISSN
1462-9011
1873-6416
Open Access
closed
Volume
124
Start page
85
End page
89
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 treeless habitats and native forest ecosystems.