Maria Jose Riquelme

A big lesson from this small country

2010-01-04T14:07:35+00:00

Minister Ana Lya Uriarte announced in Copenhagen a voluntary reduction of 20% by 2020 in the electric, mining, transport and the energy-intensive industrial sectors. This reduction -she said- will be achieved using mainly government funds.

This ethical commitment and political responsibility is what was lacking in Copenhagen, especially on behalf of the US and China, but also from other G77 countries, who could have done more to reach an agreement. Chile has also changed the way in which nations negotiate, since she didn’t wait for others to act to start taking actions. On the contrary, in what seems to me to be a decision of a mature, fully integrated nation, Chile made a free and autonomous decision to contribute to avoid the worst effects of climate change.

Other developing and non-Annex 1 countries also made some voluntary commitments. I would like to see developed nations reacting to this good will and work faster to solve the financial issues, and at a level that could allow us to avoid global temperatures rising over 2ºC and that also reflect the level of responsibility that industrialised countries have.

I hope Chile keeps up the work carried out until now, strengthening and improving its domestic policies, but also taking a leading role in the next stages on the road to Mexico 2010.

From a ravenous appetite for energy to a smart consumption approach

2009-12-04T15:09:14+00:00

We have learnt that energy is one such limited resource. It was only a short while ago that we perceived and rated energy as a very valuable and expensive asset whose supply is far from certain. But we realized also there are other safer and cleaner energy sources available albeit more expensive. So, Eureka! We changed our speech and started to talk about energy efficiency; in other words: how to use energy in a more clever way while bearing in mind how valuable this asset really is.

But the issue is that we need to produce the suitable tools aimed at the development of technologies and ideas that will assist us in gaining such energy efficiency status.

It was only a short while ago that the Country-Wide Energy Efficiency Programme (Name in Spanish: “Programa País de Eficiencia Energética”) conducted a seminar on education and the good use of energy resources (please see http://www.ppee.cl/577/article-59330.html - in Spanish). At this event we met with Tony Thomas, Professor of the “Work-Based” Learning initiative of the London South Bank University.

A comment from Tony during his visit is that Chile has the unique opportunity of implementing things in the proper way. As he has repeatedly stated, the United Kingdom is still some 40% behind its declared objectives; chiefly due to the lack of the suitable knowledge and expertise that could lead to its proper and full development. He went on to say that the same reasoning applies to energy efficiency.

In Chile we are developing medium to long term strategies aimed at a transition onto a more sustainable and cleaner development status. We have learnt very valuable lessons that have prompted us to think about new business opportunities, new markets, new policies and suitable institutions. But, as we must learn from countries such as the United Kingdom, it is also essential to create the talent that should allow us to cope with both a fast growing market and match the speed of changes already looming over the horizon.

The key fact that most resources available on this planet are in limited supply should compel us – at a far too slow pace in my opinion – to shift our consumption avidness onto a stance whereby our eagerness goes to increasing our knowledge instead.

Wine industry getting ready to challenge the impacts of climate change

2009-11-05T14:20:30+00:00

Packed… absolutely packed. In October, the event “Sustainability, Climate Change and Energy Efficiency in the Chilean Wine Industry” brought together around 300 people at the Ritz Carlton Hotel.

At this event, the British Ambassador to Chile, Mr Howard Drake, introduced the UK-funded study the Economic Impacts of Climate Change on the Wine Industry in Chile and Argentina. On the occasion, he stressed that this study should serve as a tool for Chilean growers to be better prepared to face the changes and challenges imposed by a changing weather… and to ensure the planet will continue to enjoy the wine from this part of the world!

Some winemakers, such as Jose Guilisasti, said we could already feel climate change. He said that in the 9th region, for example, 25 years ago there was no way they could grow vines, whereas now they’ve found quite good conditions.

PriceWaterhouse Coopers, the implementers, presented the preliminary findings. Some of the expected changes include:

- Winemaking conditions will actually move south
- Possible new plagues
- Strong droughts and higher temperatures may bring the harvest forward and the ripening season might be more difficult to foresee
- A rise in sugar content, hence a rise in the alcohol content
- 20% less water in the rivers of the Central Valley, where most of the vine valleys are located

This didn’t seem new to another winemaker, Mr Pablo Morandé, who explained that Morande Winery had had to take out vines that they’d planted 25 years ago in Casablanca.

Other reactions were not as positive. One person said that he didn’t believe climate change was here or that it could lead to a crisis.

It is sad to see that still irrefutable evidence is put into question. I sensed that there is still a lot of scepticism in terms of the magnitude of the effects and that many see it as an exaggeration or as a conspiracy from the developed world.

In a country that prides itself for its natural assets and a booming wine industry, it may very well be that ignorance is bliss.

David Ockwell’s visit to Chile - The issue of technology transfer

2009-10-02T18:52:17+01:00

In some countries such as the United Kingdom there is a certain degree of pessimism on the likely results of the negotiations leading to the Copenhagen Conference. Indeed, the worldwide financial crisis has influenced priority worries and money to go towards the sorting out of internal problems, thus nowadays there is little interest and will power left within the countries listed in Annex I to commit enough money that may satisfy emerging countries.

One of the four areas of negotiation that has caused the highest degree of frustration amid developing countries is the issue concerning technology transfer from developed countries.

Why is this subject so difficult to address? The causes of the problem are basically: financing, financing mechanisms and intellectual property. In plain English: how much does it cost, how it will be paid for and how do we ensure the inventors or creators will generate their income.

During the timeframe between the Bali conference and the one to be held in Copenhagen some efforts have gone into trying to establish at least the following:

The creation of financial sources and suitable operational mechanisms for handling them. Assistance with the research stage, particularly in the form of surveys focused on needs and the development of new technologies; Technology transfer mechanisms broken down into sectors combined with suitable empirical data aimed at supporting such projects.

However, so far the emphasis has gone to creating the conditions allowing for foreign investment initiatives to be implemented rather than boosting the innovation capabilities within the countries themselves. In other words, there has been an increase in the capacity to import technology rather than transferring it.

As regards the negotiation, the main issue appears to be the setting of the amount required to ensure the countries listed in Annex II do get underway with the implementation of their mitigation and adaptation initiatives. The production of the necessary surveys has experienced delays and many argue that they lack the financing to get started with such surveys. On the other hand, some countries believe that the identification of their mitigation potential without the compelling need to mitigate is a pressure tool used by developed countries to demand action.. Another aspect that stems from all the foregoing is that emerging countries want to see a specific money figure placed on the negotiating table if they are to start talking about it; the fact is there is no agreement on its amount.

The second point of contention has to do with the financing mechanisms. Some believe that there should be a fund and others think that the carbon bonds’ market should finance them. The third vision is that this initiative is not going to clear the way for the negotiations to proceed within the Convention on Climatic Change framework; with multilateral or bilateral agreements looked upon as being a much better option.

The plus factor for the latter options takes us to the third point of contention: intellectual property rights. It is at this point that the overall issue becomes considerably tangled.

David Ockwell from the University of Sussex visited Chile last month. His visit had to do with a working session of the various entities involved in the design of a strategy advocating a technology transfer initiative that would allow Chile to adapt to and mitigate the effects of climatic change.

As David put it in his presentations, a technology transfer does not merely entail transferring a device or a piece of hardware but encompasses the development of capabilities and - on many occasions - the adaptation of such capabilities to local realities. Companies tend to believe that creating local capacities would end in a loss of a market and could represent a risk to their investments, making the expansion of their business a real challenge.

David argues the answer to the contention is to be found on two areas: by focusing the new business initiatives on the technology transfer-linked services such as, for instance, the setting of joint venture companies. In this way the company arranging the TT can make a dent in a market new to it by creating relevant capabilities while also ensuring the availability of better trained human resources.

Another aspect that David took good care in highlighting was the development of the existing local capabilities. Many of the innovations with low carbon emissions are to be found in the solutions used sometime in the past - such as the case of natural control of plagues in organic production. Perhaps it is a matter of adding a higher degree of technology to them or ensuring they go beyond “The Valley of Death” of technology development: a sort of limbo where most technologies fail to secure financial backing for their prefeasibility stages and thus get “stuck in the sand” and go no further.

Be as it may, I believe the fact that Chile is now looking into the small print of her technology transfer strategy is a very strong and remarkable signal that should not go unnoticed. This is an opportunity for the local business community to attract investment and is also an opportunity to start thinking how to provide added value to the Chilean output (all this while tackling the climatic change challenges).

In short, a very clever way of unlocking discussions and just getting on with it!

The Green Giants meet in Buenos Aires

2009-08-26T12:03:40+01:00

I attended the Green Giants Coalition meeting in Buenos Aires on the 27th of July. This is an initiative funded by the FCO, aimed at creating stronger leadership among the private sector in South America in addressing climate change.

The meeting took place at the British Ambassador’s residence and was attended by prominent businessmen from Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Peru. On this occasion, ECLAC's economist Mr Oscar Cetrángolo, presented the South American Country Studies on the Economic Impacts of Climate Change, which are being developed in several countries in the region, including those represented at this event. The studies are funded by the Inter American Development Bank, the FCO, the Danish government and ECLAC (Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean). All were very pleased to have been invited and found it was very positive to involve the private sector at such an early stage. We discussed how the studies could help the private sector prepare for a low-carbon scenario and also how to share the findings with the business sector more widely back in each country.

The private sector is a key actor in the fight against climate change, since it is a driver for innovation, economic growth and countries' development. After Copenhagen, countries may have to re-think their financial policies, and adapt institutions and legal frameworks. Inevitably, we will all have a greater role to play in working towards a low-carbon and sustainable economy.

"Our mission is, in truth, historic and world changing - to build, over the next fifty years and beyond, a global low carbon economy. And it is not over-dramatic to say that the character and course of the coming century will be set by how we measure up to this challenge" Prime Minister Gordon Brown (19 November 2007)