Energy consumption in the industry sector is responsible for 14% of Chile’s total GHG emissions, while emissions from industrial processes account for a further 6%.¹⁸

Chile is the world’s largest copper exporter, and its mining industry is the biggest industrial energy consumer in the country.¹

The Chilean government aims to reduce energy related GHG emissions in the mining sector by 70% below 2018 levels by 2050.⁵ In addition, at least 90% of the energy used for cooling and heating in the sector should come from renewable sources by the same year.

Large energy consumers in Chile are required to conduct regular audits (usually every three years) and to report to the Ministry of Energy on identified and projected energy opportunities. They are also obliged to have in place an energy management plan as well as targets, measurements and verification processes.⁴

As part of the long-term strategy and the national mining policy, the government aims to reduce CO₂e emissions by at least 50% compared to 2020 by 2030 and to achieve carbon neutrality in the mining sector by 2040.⁶

The 1.5°C pathways assessed here suggest that electricity’s share in final energy demand of industry, when combined with biomass and hydrogen, would need to reach between 83-98% by 2050, from the 2019 level of 55%.

¹ Climate Action Tracker. Chile. November 2022 update. Climate Action Tracker. 2022.

² PIK. PRIMAP: Paris-Reality Check, Chile. 2016.

³ Ministerio de Energía. Energia abierta: Balance nacional de energía.

⁴ Guerra, E. & Guillén, J. Leyes de Eficiencia Energética en Latinoamérica y el Caribe. 2021.

⁵ Ministry of Energy. Energia 2050 Politica Energetica de Chile. 2022.

⁶ Ministerio de Minería, G. de C. Minería 2050. Politica Nacional Minera. 2022.

⁷ International Energy Agency. Country Profile: Chile. 2019.

⁸ S&P Global Platts. Chile lifts coal imports, but limited by rising natural gas supplies. S&P Global. 2019.

⁹ Gobierno de of Chile. Presidente Piñera presentó plan para cerrar todas las centrales energéticas a carbón para que Chile sea carbono neutral. 4 de Junio. 2019.

¹⁰ Government of Chile. Chile’s Nationally Determined Contribution – Update 2020. 2020.

¹¹ Climate Action Tracker. CAT Climate Target Update Tracker Chile. Climate Action Tracker. 2020.

¹² Ministerio de Energia del Gobierno de Chile. NDC y Plan de Carbono Neutralidad 2050. 2020.

¹³ Ministerio de Energia- Gobierno de Chile. Plataforma de Electromovilidad. Orientaciones de Politicas Publicas. 2022.

¹⁴ EBP Chile. Estudio de Movilidad Eléctrica en Chile. 2018.

¹⁵ La Tercera. El plan que busca convertir a Chile en el segundo país con más buses eléctricos del mundo. Electricidad. La revista energetica de Chile. 2018.

¹⁶ Government of Chile. Chile announces that it will work to put an end to coal use by 2030 after joining the Powering Past Coal Alliance. 2021.

¹⁷ Ministerio de Energía. Energía 2050: Política Energética de Chile. 2015.

¹⁸ Gütschow, J., Günther, A. & Pflüger, M. The PRIMAP-Hist national historical emissions time series (1990-2021). 2022.

¹⁹ While global cost-effective pathways assessed by the IPCC Special Report 1.5°C provide useful guidance for an upper-limit of emissions trajectories for developed countries, they underestimate the feasible space for such countries to reach net zero earlier. The current generation of models tend to depend strongly on land-use sinks outside of currently developed countries and include fossil fuel use well beyond the time at which these could be phased out, compared to what is understood from bottom-up approaches. The scientific teams which provide these global pathways constantly improve the technologies represented in their models – and novel CDR technologies are now being included in new studies focused on deep mitigation scenarios meeting the Paris Agreement goal. A wide assessment database of these new scenarios is not yet available; thus, we rely on available scenarios which focus particularly on BECCS as a net-negative emission technology. Accordingly, we do not yet consider land-sector emissions (LULUCF) and other CDR approaches.