Chile. Energy. An emerging key actor in the renewable energy arena. This case study ist an analysis carried out as part of the annual synthesis report on sectoral climate action

Chile, with less than 18 million inhabitants, is becoming a strategic actor in the world energy transition thanks to its Northern Atacama Desert that contains great mineral wealth, mainly copper and lithium, and the country’s huge potential for renewable energy (RE) production. It is one of the first countries becoming successful in promoting RE electricity production without feed-in tariffs or other subsidies. The current long-term goal is at least 70 % of renewable electricity by 2050. It requires to keep a fast pace of investments in clean energy while removing coal generation through different public policies. However, while such policies are fundamental, they may not be sufficient, given the complexity and pace of the required changes. This transformation may be possible thanks to the active participation of stakeholders, from political parties, universities, and research centres, to the private sector and citizen organizations. Altogether, and despite the existing contradictions, they are pushing policies closer to faster decarbonization and are helping to implement real new solutions in the different regions of the country. In this paper, we discuss the role of the main nonstate actors of the Chilean energy transition, focusing on the electricity sector.