Diversifying Chile's Climate Action Away from Industrial Plantations
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Environmental Science and Policy 124 (2021) 85–89 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Environmental Science and Policy journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/envsci Diversifying Chile’s climate action away from industrial plantations Jorge Hoyos-Santillan a,b,c,d,*, Alejandro Miranda b,c,d,e, Antonio Lara b,f,g, Armando Sepulveda-Jauregui b,c,d, Carlos Zamorano-Elgueta b,h, Susana Gomez-Gonz´ alez´ b,i,j, Felipe Vasquez-Lavín´ b,k,l, Rene D. Garreaud b,m, Maisa Rojas b,m a School of Biosciences, University of Nottingham, Sutton Bonington, Loughborough, UK b Center for Climate and Resilience Research (CR)2, Santiago, Metropolitan Region, Chile c Network for Extreme Environments Research, Universidad de La Frontera, Temuco, La Araucanía, Chile d Environmental Biogeochemistry in Extreme Ecosystems Laboratory, University of Magallanes, Punta Arenas, Magallanes, Chile e Laboratorio de Ecología del Paisaje y Conservacion,´ Departamento de Ciencias Forestales, Universidad de La Frontera, Temuco, La Araucanía, Chile f Instituto de Conservacion,´ Biodiversidad y Territorio, Universidad Austral de Chile, Valdivia, Los Ríos, Chile g Fundacion´ Centro de los Bosques Nativos-FORECOS, Valdivia, Los Ríos, Chile h Departamento de Ciencias Naturales y Tecnología, Universidad de Ays´en, Coyhaique, Ays´en, Chile i Departamento de Biología-IVAGRO, Universidad de Cadiz,´ Puerto Real, Cadiz,´ Spain j Center for Fire and Socioecological Systems (FireSES), Universidad Austral de Chile, Valdivia, Los Ríos, Chile k School of Business and Economics, Universidad del Desarrollo, Santiago, Metropolitan Region, Chile l Center of Applied Ecology and Sustainability (CAPES), Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, Santiago, Metropolitan Region, Chile m Geophysics Department, University of Chile, Santiago, Metropolitan Region, Chile ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Keywords As president of the Climate Change Conference of the Parties, Chile has advocated for developing ambitious Climate action commitments to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions to achieve carbon-neutrality by 2050. However, Chile’s Wildfires motivations and ambitious push to reach carbon-neutrality are complicated by a backdrop of severe drought, Nature-based solutions climate change impacts (i.e., wildfires, tree mortality), and the use of industrial plantations as a mitigation Native forest strategy. This has become more evident as widespread and severe wildfires have impacted large areas of in Carbon neutrality Net-zero dustrial 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 imple mented 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. 1. Introduction arena. In 2019, Chile became president of the Climate Change Confer ence of the Parties (COP25); this appointment was extended until International agreements and policies have thus far fallen short in November 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, making Chile’s presi guiding the world down a sustainable path towards limiting global dency the longest in the history of the COP. Chile has been a major warming (Hohne¨ et al., 2020). Even with strict compliance to the un advocate for developing ambitious commitments to mitigate greenhouse conditional commitments to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions pre gas emissions to achieve carbon neutrality by the second half of this ◦ sented in the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC), a 3.2 C rise century. At present, 127 countries, responsible for 63 % of the emissions, in temperature above pre-industrial levels is anticipated by 2100 are considering adopting climate actions toward net-zero CO2 emissions (Hohne¨ et al., 2020; United Nations Environment Programme, 2019). by 2050, and 32 countries, including Chile, have made carbon neutrality Motivated by this concern, Chile, which due to climate change is one of legally binding (Hohne¨ et al., 2020). the most drought-stricken countries in the Americas (Garreaud et al., Chile’s carbon neutrality roadmap considers a public-private in 2020), has taken a more active role in the international climate policy vestment of U.S.$ 71 billion in the energy sector, which is responsible for * Corresponding author at: School of Biosciences, University of Nottingham, Sutton Bonington, Loughborough, UK. E-mail address: [email protected] (J. Hoyos-Santillan). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2021.06.013 Received 26 November 2020; Received in revised form 8 April 2021; Accepted 14 June 2021 Available online 17 June 2021 1462-9011/© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. J. Hoyos-Santillan et al. Environmental Science and Policy 124 (2021) 85–89 78 % of the country’s emissions. The funds will be dedicated to (i) and Barbosa, 2019; Paritsis and Aizen, 2008). phasing-out coal-firedpower plants; (ii) increasing the use of renewable According to Chile’s National Greenhouse Gas Inventory, LULUCF is sources in electricity generation; (iii) improving the efficiencyof energy the only sector currently acting as a carbon sink (Ministry of the Envi production, transmission, and consumption; (iv) supporting electro- ronment, 2020a). Nevertheless, its carbon sink capacity lies entirely in mobility; and (v) promoting the construction of energy-efficient hous native forests (Lara et al., 2019) (Fig. 1). By contrast, the 3.1 million ha ing and buildings (Clerc, 2020). If properly implemented, these actions of Chile’s industrial plantations, mainly constituted of Pinus radiata (61 will lead to a gradual drop in the energy sector’s annual greenhouse gas %) and Eucalyptus sp. (33 %) (Ministry of Agriculture, 2021) (Table 1), 1 emissions from its current 87 MtCO2eq y to such an extent that they have consistently acted as a net carbon source. This is because their could be offset by the land use, land-use change, and forestry (LULUCF) carbon uptake is cancelled out by the clear-cut harvesting that occurs sector by 2050 (Clerc, 2020). Thus, Chile relies on the LULUCF sector to every 12–18 years for the production of short-lived goods (e.g., pulp), mitigate the totality of its remaining emissions from the energy sector (i. the burning of firewood, slash and burn practices, and wildfires (John 1 e., 55 MtCO2eq y ). However, the capacity of LULUCF to consistently ston and Radeloff, 2019; Ministry of the Environment, 2020a). Thus, act as a carbon sink is arguable considering the current strategy of using intensive, short-rotation industrial plantations of exotic trees as climate action and the uncertainty of the future carbon sink capacity of native Table 1 forests under the anticipated climate change scenarios. General information: LULUCF sector and NDC contribution. General land cover information (ha) a 2. Choosing the right trees Chile’s continental land area 75,593,200 Total area of native forests 14,636,759b Total area of industrial plantations 3,114,000b 2.1. Industrial plantations as climate action Tree cover lossc (ha y 1) Industrial plantations 96,869 As a key component of Chile’s mitigation strategy, the country’s NDC Native forests 12,884 d includes the following LULUCF climate actions: (i) sustainable man LULUCF NDC contributions by 2030 (ha) Sustainable management of native forests 200,000 agement of 200,000 ha of native forest; (ii) an additional 100,000 ha of Additional industrial plantations 100,000 industrial plantations; (iii) the afforestation of 100,000 ha (70 % native Afforestation with native forests 70,000 forest and 30 % non-native species); and (iv) the reduction of forest Afforestation with industrial plantations 30,000 e degradation and deforestation associated with forestry. These actions Reduction of forest degradation and deforestation (%) 25 1 National Plan for Restauration of Landscapes 1,000,000 are expected to contribute to a carbon sink of 7.4 MtCO2eq y from GHG emissions/captures 2017 (MtCO2eq) 2030 to 2050 on top of the LULUCF sector’s existing sink capacity of 65 Chile’s total GHG emissions without LULUCFa 111.22 1 MtCO2eq y (Gobierno de Chile, 2020; Ministry of the Environment, LULUCF captures without wildfires 65 f 2018). Chile’s NDC also includes the development of a National Plan for Wildfires emissions 78 ± 13 the Restoration of Landscapes comprising 1 million ha. The plan is a Ministry of the Environment (2020a). currently under development, but it does consider the use of industrial b Ministry of Agriculture (2021). Industrial plantations are mainly constituted plantations as part of the restoration actions. However, during the past by monocultures of Pinus radiata (1,886,107 ha) and Eucalyptus sp. (1,040,000 two decades, tree cover loss of both native forests and industrial plan ha). In-depth information regarding native forests and industrial plantations tations due to deforestation, clear-cutting, harvesting, and natural di composition are available at CONAF (2017b). c sasters has reached 158,000 ± 71,800 ha y 1 (Altamirano et al., 2020; Altamirano et al. (2020) mean estimation between 2000 and 2016. Tree Hansen et al., 2013). This loss is mainly associated with the harvest of cover loss in industrial plantations mostly returned to be industrial plantations,