translated from Spanish: House presses government to accelerate decarbonization plan deadlines

Considering that it is possible to reduce the deadlines for the desc carbonization without affecting the stability of the energy supply, the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Iván Flores, proposed to the Government to shorten the times to reach the closure of all coal-fired power plants by 2040, a deadline announced by the President Flores and which Flores considers “dangerously excessive.”
In a draft resolution of his authorship, parliamentarian DC recalled that coal-fired power generation is 40% of the country’s energy matrix and that the current government intends to carry out a programme to close coal-fired power plants and replace them with renewable energy sources, “however, the deadlines announced by the authority are absolutely insufficient and we believe that this process should be more rapid, considering the serious effect that coal-power plants have on the planet; not taking on this challenge is not understanding where we are.” Flores noted that from 2024 onwards it is only planned to form work tables with generators, every five years, to establish specific schedules for the withdrawal of operations from other units with a view to the goal of the total closure of the plant-to-plant coal by 2040.
“This means that there is still no timetable for the post-2024 stage, so it is still possible to organize the withdrawal of coal-burning power plants, in shorter timeframes,” the president of the Chamber of Deputies emphasized.
In this context, the draft resolution seeks the Chamber of Deputies to ask the President of the Republic, taking into view the arguments set out above, to “reduce the time limits set out in the recently announced “Decarbonization Plan”.
Climate pyrotechnics
The decarbonization schedule announced by President Sebastián Piñera and rated as a “historic milestone” by the Government, projects the closure of eight thermoelectric plants to 2024 and the total withdrawal of these coal-based generators to 2040.
The impact of these measures, however, would be a long way from the climate ambition that Chile’s various environmental organizations expected with a view to COP25 in December and the Climate Action Summit convened in September by the United Nations in New York, since in fact it would involve an extension of the life of thermoelectric plants and even an increase in the installed power for this 2019, after the start-up a week ago of a new thermoelectric plant with more power than those that are removed.
Criticism from environmentalists
Various organizations in slaughter zones have harshly criticized Piñera’s plan, calling it “unacceptable and outrageous”. “The timetable announced by President Sebastián Piñera to close only outdated power plants in the next 5 years is unacceptable and outrageous and does not live up to the ethical and political challenge to climate change and severe local pollution population in those areas,” they said.
The deadlines are the first qualms of citizen organizations at the national level, together with territorial organizations of the so-called “Sacrifice Zones” and 7 senators and 20 deputies from different regions.
For these organizations, it is urgent to “close these industries by 2030, because of their serious impact on local health and environment and their high carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Leaving the decarbonisation schedule open to the will for the next 15 years (between 2025 and 2040), is to renounce the government sithouse to reduce global pollution and localm by redirecting investments to clean up the matrix electric.”

Original source in Spanish