Newsletter ACERA - Febrero 2020

04.
PARTICIPATORY ENERGY POLICY WITH
SOCIAL COMPROMISE
Since 2015, Chile has a National Energy Policy articulated on the base of
advances from previous years and consensus from various actors. As part
of its commitments, an update was established every five years, to
incorporate technological changes and the emergence of new priorities
for society that could modify the projected energy scenario. As Ministry
of Energy we accept this challenge, driven by our Government's new
commitments to withdraw coal-fueled plants by 2040 and achieve
carbon-neutrality by 2050.
O
PI
NION
Francisco
López
Undersecretary of Energy
At the beginning of October, we started a series of participatory
workshops throughout the country, convinced that citizen participation is
an input that enriches and improves public policies, and due to the need
to open more spaces to listen and consider the visions, longings and
concerns of Chileans around energy.
We will continue this upgrade process throughout 2020. During March,
we will expand the citizen workshops to new regional locations including
rural areas. Similar to the previous process, we will convene expert
groups by topic across the country, and create a new Advisory
Committee for National Energy Policy. We seek that this political-strategic
body is made up of key actors from various sectors across the energy
industry, coming from the public, private, academic and civil society
spheres, and will be in charge of delivering a roadmap proposal to the
Ministry of Energy.
In this sense, the information raised during the participatory workshops
will be essential to deliver information to the technical bodies and,
towards the end of the year, to deploy a new round of citizen meetings
to present the results of the process and collect opinions on the
objectives and guidelines of the new policy, which will eventually be
submitted to public consultation and a Strategic Environmental
Assessment process.
We know that clean energies are the protagonists in the energy transition
we live in. Therefore, any attempt to make a long-term update of the
energy policy must consider the voice of those who today drive their
growth. Those who lead this industry today will play a key role in
achieving the goals we have as a country. From the public sector, we
want to invite you to join the instances of participation that will continue
in this process, to build among all, with different visions, an energy that is
increasingly human and citizen-based.