Minister Schmidt launches a climate risk atlas that shows climate change threats and opportunities throughout Chile
The publicly available tool provides access to information like risk maps, climate projections at the municipal level for the entire national territory and detailed downloadable information on Chilean flora and fauna.
Climate change is a challenge we must address jointly and collaboratively. It requires different solutions depending on the realities of the country’s different sectors, municipalities and territories. That is why the Environment and Science Ministries launched the Climate Risk Atlas (ARCLIM for the Spanish acronym), which shows the specific threats arising from climate change's territorial impact at the municipal level throughout the country. The Climate Risk Atlas aims to make the best information available to improve decision making and implement adaptation measures to reduce our vulnerability to climate change.
“ARCLIM is a tool that enables to change the paradigms for decision making in the country’s territories because, until today, data from the past was used to make projections. The Atlas is an X-ray that allows us to look ahead as it provides climate change projections based on scientific data. It will enable us to improve policy design and implement adaptation measures to address this phenomenon,” said Environment Minister Carolina Schmidt.
The Atlas was developed by the Chilean government’s Environment Ministry, the Center for Climate and Resilience Research (CR)2 and the UC Center for Global Change (CCG-Universidad Católica de Chile), with collaboration from 17 other regional institutions and funding from the German government via the GIZ agency.
Environment Minister Carolina Schmidt and Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation Minister Andrés Couve, along with scientists from the ARCLIM team, represented by René Garreaud from (CR)2 at Universidad de Chile and Francisco Meza from the UC Center for Global Change, presented the platform and responded to questions posed by a panel of representatives from different sectors. Participating on the panel were Federation of Chilean Industry (SOFOFA) CEO Bernardo Larraín, Mining Council CEO Joaquín Villarino, Santiago Stock Exchange Manager María Gloria Timmerman, the Mayor of Santiago Felipe Alessandri and Executive Director of The Nature Conservancy, Francisca Tondreau.
Detailed information on the risks and impacts of climate change for the different municipalities in Chile for the 1980-2010 historical period and the 2035-2065 medium-term will enable all municipalities and stakeholders involved to make better decisions regarding appropriate adaptation and mitigation measures for the different territories within Chile and to consider new designs in light of climate change projections.
To access ARCLIM, review the risk maps, threats and impact chains, click here: https://arclim.meteodata.cl/