Santiago, Chile to purchase more than 700 electric buses in 2020
Chile just order 150 electric buses from BYD to transport people around its capital city of Santiago. Santiago intends to have its public transportation system fully electric by 2040.
Chile
This archive collects solutions-journalism stories and milestones from Chile — covering areas like environmental policy, public health, social innovation, and community-led progress. Each entry highlights concrete developments worth knowing about.
Chileans now consume a lot less sugar after landmark public health law
The world’s toughest controls over the promotion of sugary drinks, brought in by a nation beset by obesity, have cut purchases by nearly a quarter in two years, research has shown.
Chile’s largest metro network to be powered by solar and wind
Santiago’s metro system – which transports approximately 2.4 million passengers each day – will become one of the first subways in the world to source most of its power needs from renewable energy.
Chile to close 8 coal plants by 2024, phase out coal entirely by 2040
The move would slash the share of coal within the electricity grid from 40% to 20% in five years, with a view to phasing out the fuel completely by 2040.
Chile set to become first American country to ban plastic bags
In a historic decision, Chile’s House of Representatives voted this Wednesday to ban the usage of plastic bags in all types of shops across the entire territory, making it the only country to prohibit them in the American continent.
Chile adds 10 million acres of parkland in historic first
At a ceremony on Monday, Chilean president Michelle Bachelet officially declared a major expansion of Chile’s parklands, creating two new national parks and protecting vast swaths of the country’s rainforests, grasslands, and other wild terrains.
Private land gift drives vast expansion of Chile’s national parks
Chilean President Michelle Bachelet and American conservationist Kristine Tompkins on Wednesday pledged to grow Chile’s national park lands by roughly 11 million acres, an area more than four times the size of Yellowstone National Park.
Chile to build massive 450 MW solar thermal power plant
This week, the Chilean government gave the green light to development of SolarReserve’s 450 megawatt (MW) Tamarugal concentrated solar power project.
All 12 South American nations sign the UNASUR Constitutive Treaty
UNASUR was born on May 23, 2008, when all 12 South American nations gathered in Brasília to sign a single treaty binding a continent of more than 400 million people into one union. For a region long defined by rivalry and isolation, it was a rare written promise that their futures would be shaped together.
Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen becomes first European to reach Easter Island and Samoa
Jacob Roggeveen’s Pacific expedition reached a remote volcanic island on Easter Sunday, 1722, where towering stone moai and thousands of Rapa Nui greeted his three Dutch ships. At 62, he went on to chart islands across the Tuamotus, Society Islands, and Samoa. His journals gave Europe its first glimpse of a vast, long-inhabited Polynesian world.