I. Abstract
The Metropolitan Region of Santiago faces important challenges related to sustainable urban development, such as environmental quality, urban territorial balance in distributing goods and services, decent housing, attention to migratory movements, and the fight against climate change.
The climate emergency forces concrete adaptation and mitigation actions to address the existing challenges. In Santiago, the water emergency, atmospheric pollution, and rising temperatures have become conditioning factors that increasingly affect the population’s quality of life and health, especially in the most vulnerable communities.
In this sense, the Government of Santiago seeks to recover the city for the people since it is an urgent task and a citizen’s demand. It plays a fundamental role in leading the debate on Climate Change in an integral manner, in which it “decides, acts and articulates” the different sectors of the state, the private sector, and civil society to face the future challenges of the Region effectively and early.
II. Keywords
Climate Change – Inequality – Governance.
III. Climate Crisis in Santiago – The New Face of Territorial Inequality
To understand the climate crisis in Santiago and, with it, the advantages and disadvantages to which the 52 communes that comprise the Metropolitan Region are exposed, exacerbated by the effects of the climate crisis and with the challenge of advancing in an integral region, the Metropolitan Regional Government of Santiago prepared and approved in April 2024 the first Climate Change Action Plan, which consists of a document containing the climate diagnosis for the region, based on the technical analysis of the present and projected situation (Government of Santiago 2024 – Regional Climate Change Action Plan).
From the above analysis, it is expected that, in the coming years, the rural area of the Metropolitan Region will suffer loss of productive land and damage to ecosystems due to temperature increase. Droughts and fires will also result from climate change, significantly impacting the vulnerable population of the territory (Government of Santiago 2024 – Regional Climate Change Action Plan).
On the other hand, urban centers are expected to be impacted by extreme heat waves, which will increase the risk to the population’s health, droughts, and floods, which will make the infrastructure gap between the city and the Region more evident.
In the same sense, the basins and aquifers of the RM show that in the coming years, there will be a deficit in their water supply to sustain the demand, generating a scenario of water insecurity. This future scenario is projected to have a lower supply and higher water demand, so it is necessary to make urgent progress in water security, especially in vulnerable groups such as rural sanitation services, irregular settlements, and women. The analysis of climate risk indicators is complemented by the work of citizen participation, where the main concerns are the threats of drought, fires, and extreme heat (Government of Santiago 2024 – Regional Climate Change Action Plan).
Regarding Greenhouse Gases, Scope 1 emissions (generated by industries) are around 20,907 ktCO2eq in 2020 and are estimated to be around 32,236 ktCO2eq (measured in tons of carbon footprint) in 2050. The primary sources of emissions at the regional level will be land transport (32.7% share in the 2020-2050 period), landfills (17.4%), and the residential sector (13.4%) (Source: PARCC).
An increase in historical and projected temperatures can be observed regarding the current climate and projections. Heat waves and Urban Heat Islands (UHI) in the Central Valley can also be observed.
The most significant changes in the average temperature in the Metropolitan Region of Santiago will be in the mountain range area, based on data from the Quinta Normal station, which shows an increase of 0.19°C per decade in the average temperature. When reviewing the ranking of the warmest years, it can be seen that the five years of the last decade are within the ten warmest years since this station has been recorded. When analyzing by decades, the decade from 2001 to 2020 is the warmest decade since 1971, with an average increase of 0.7°C.
However, heat islands impact the local population in several ways. On the one hand, they generate an increase in energy demand, especially during the summer, which leads to higher energy consumption for air conditioners. This, in turn, leads to a rise in greenhouse gas emissions due to the high energy generation, which contributes to more significant environmental pollution. On the other hand, this higher energy consumption implies increased living costs for people, as they have to face additional expenses in their energy bills, which means an economic inequality that affects mainly the vulnerable population.
The most significant danger is that heat waves increase the incidence of diseases and mortality related to extreme heat. They also negatively affect water quality. Rising temperatures cause increased evaporation and decreased water availability in rivers and reservoirs, which can lead to a higher concentration of pollutants in the remaining water. In addition, water warming can disrupt aquatic life and affect the availability and quality of water resources for human consumption and other uses. According to the spatial distribution of surface soil temperature (LST) and the UHI index, maximum temperatures are located in the northern part of the region, specifically in Chacabuco and Santiago, reaching maximum values over 40°C. For the Chacabuco province, the Tiltil and Colina communes have the highest values, close to 45°C. Concerning the province of Santiago, the communes most affected by heat islands correspond to the northwestern sector of the province; within the urban area of Santiago, the communes of Quilicura, Conchalí, and Quinta Normal stand out.
The urban areas with the highest population concentration in the capital city of Santiago have surface soil temperatures above 35°C within the north-south strip in the region’s center. In parallel, a second band above 35°C runs through the east of the area within the Cordillera province.
Another critical aspect that influences the increase in temperatures inside the city is the impermeability of the soil in urban areas, i.e., the large urbanized surfaces and construction materials amplify climate change. So much so that there are more and more cases of severe illnesses due to high temperatures and even deaths attributed to heat stroke. In the Universidad Autónoma de Chile study, five categories are established concerning the trend of surface temperatures: warming, stable, stable-cold, stable-warm, cold, and overheating. Analyzing the status of each commune attributed to one of these categories, we can observe that 21% of them are overheating, and 26% are in a situation of stable warming. This generates a new territorial inequality gap since half of the communes, located in the western part of the urban area of Santiago, present a trajectory of hot or overheating surface temperature.
Last summer, for the first time, a red alert was declared for extreme heat in the Metropolitan Region, as communicated by the Ministry of the Interior through SENAPRED on 29/01/24, according to information provided by the Meteorological Directorate of Santiago, which marks an unprecedented milestone in climate change in the Region.
Coincidentally with the above, when analyzing the indices of vegetation cover in the Region, we can observe an urban wound without vegetation cover, that is, that in the areas where there is a lack of it corresponds to the communes in which there is a greater incidence of heat waves, being also the most vulnerable communes in economic terms in the Region, an example of this can be seen in the lack of urban trees that play a scarce role in the construction of green infrastructure, of the communes located in the western sector, as well as the lack of consolidated green areas; squares, urban parks, roadside trees, metropolitan parks, etc.
The four communes with the highest incomes concentrate 32.2% of the total surface of green areas, while the four poorest communes have only 4.1%. This leads to the identification of much higher pollution levels and high temperatures in the most vulnerable communities. Therefore, there is a need to take action to conserve this arboreal heritage.
All of the above should be treated integrally and not in isolation since the city corresponds to an articulated organism that should preserve the life of its inhabitants and provide social and ecological services according to its distribution, surface area, and accessibility.
To reinforce the above, this is also reflected in the vulnerability map of the Region, which shows the communes of the western sector lacking goods and services of the city, which is reflected in a lower quality of life for its inhabitants, some aspects of vulnerability are: access to essential public services and equipment, access to sustainable mobility, the quality of the urban environment, social integration and quality of neighborhoods and housing.
IV. Conclusions
As a result of all the above, the Government of Santiago is facing climate change through short-, medium-, and long-term adaptation measures. The objective is to make Santiago a resilient city in the face of climate change and extreme heat, improving the quality of life of its inhabitants through the fair and equitable distribution of vegetation cover.
What have we done to face climate change in the Metropolitan Regional Government of Santiago?
a) We developed the first extreme heat protocol, called “Code Red,” to protect the population from the effects of heat on people’s health, especially the most vulnerable people, through effective communication.
b) We are developing the improvement and conservation of the most crucial axis of the Metropolitan Region of Santiago, called the Nueva Alameda Providencia axis, incorporating urban tree infrastructure through the “Brotar” program (M$1,990) in great magnitude, which considers trees of low water consumption with a high planting standard.
With Brotar, we have planted 21,000 of the 30,000 trees in different sectors of the RM, such as streets, avenues, urban forests, community plantations with a deficit of green areas, etc. We have also raised awareness about the climate crisis through courses for 12-year-old children in vulnerable schools, neighborhood councils, and municipalities.
c) We were awarded the first part of the tender for 33 Pocket Forests (M$ 4,686) in 33 different communes, with Miyawaki-type planting. This project breaks the historical trend in the Region by incorporating fast-growing vegetation cover in vulnerable sectors of the city, which will cushion the adverse effects of climate change.
d) Bloomberg Philanthropies of the Rockefeller Foundation recently selected us to execute a project to mobilize young people for climate action. The project will include training and the planting of low-water-consuming trees (ThCh$150,000).
e) We implemented a green roof at the Dr. Exequiel González Cortés Pediatric Hospital. This reduced the temperature in the sector by 1.5° (M$100,000).
f) In summer, we executed the Oasis project, which provided water to passers-by who circulated through the most crucial axis of the Metropolitan Region, mitigating the extreme heat in this place.
g) 69 air-conditioned ambulances were purchased, benefiting 28 communes (M$4,690).
h) Communities against fire program to protect 12 nature sanctuaries and surrounding communities (US$400,000 million).
i) Water management: we executed an agreement with the MOP for rural drinking water and 30 local water strategies; we worked with the incorporation of sustainability criteria in all projects; we worked in 7 schools on gray water recycling systems and in the design and implementation of a basin organization for the Maipo River that will allow us to advance in the construction of agreements and the implementation of measures, actions, and solutions to advance water security.
Long-Term Actions
a) New Santiago Metropolitan Regulatory Plan:
The planning instrument of the Region Santiago Metropolitan Regulatory Plan has been in force since 1994, and its subsequent modifications are being addressed to update them to incorporate all aspects impacting the current climate crisis.
To carry out this new Regulatory Plan, it will be necessary to modify the current regulations in force since there are matters that are outside the regulatory scope, consisting of 17 urban planning regulations by Article 116 of the General Law of Urbanism and Construction, such as land use, land transfers, grouping systems, constructability coefficient, land occupancy coefficient, minimum property surface, maximum building heights, terraced houses, distances, front gardens, squares and ground levels, maximum densities, parking lots, strips subject to declaration of public utility and risk or protection areas.
b) Within the framework of Climate Change Law No. 21,455, information is being compiled on the process of preparing the Communal Climate Change Plans in the 52 communes of the Metropolitan Region of Santiago to support the local management of the municipalities in the face of climate change.
Finally, the Government of Santiago is in the determined task of addressing climate change at the regional level through systematic support of those vulnerable areas to recover the city for the people, which involves overcoming gaps of territorial inequality, climate and, above all, protect the population, for which international cooperation is essential in this fight, as it contributes with experiences and knowledge from different parts of the world to adopt good practices and strategies that have proven to be effective, as well as it is also of great support to implement new public policies to advance in a city resilient to climate change.
V. Bibliographic References:
“Nuevas consecuencias del cambio climático en salud. Second Stage.” BUPA – Catholic University Center, DICTUC.
Circular DDU N°227 – Urban Development Division of the Ministry of Housing and Urbanism.
General Law of Urbanism and Construction – Ministry of Housing and Urbanism.
Green Infrastructure Plan STGO + (University of Chile).
Proposals to move towards carbon neutral and climate change resilient cities – National Urban Development Council.
Regional Climate Change Action Plan – Government of Santiago 2024.
Regional Development Strategy – Government of Santiago 2024.
Santiago Metropolitan Region Resilience Strategy – Government of Santiago 2024.
Santiago Metropolitan Regulatory Plan – Ministry of Housing and Urbanism.