Facilitating sustainable development in Chile: a survey of suitable energy technologies

Abstract

Sustainable development in developing countries is the main aim of the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). However, in the present context, uncertainty prevails as to whether the CDM is actually achieving its aims in terms of achieving sustainable development and to what extent. Chile has several renewable energy and energy efficiency options with significant greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions abatement potential that are not yet financially and economically competitive. In order to be able to identify potential CDM projects and to formulate a series of possible investment strategies with a sustainable development component, it is crucial to establish a clear understanding of the host country's needs and priorities and the suitable sustainable energy technologies to meet these needs. The main scope of this paper is to present results obtained from an elaborated stakeholder assessment on Chile's high priority energy needs and sustainable energy technologies fulfilling these needs in order to assist Chile in finding ways of encouraging technology transfer that would contribute to low-carbon sustainable energy development.

Keywords:

• technology transfer
• clean development mechanism
• renewable energy
• energy efficiency

Acknowledgements

This paper is based on research conducted within ENTTRANS: The potential of transferring and implementing sustainable energy technologies through the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol, FP6 project, funded by the European Commission (EC-DG Research FP6). The ENTTRANS consortium consisted of 10 organisations from eight countries, including the Cambio Climático y Desarollo Consultores (CC&D) – Chile. The authors would like to acknowledge support from the EC. Furthermore, the authors appreciate the valuable suggestions and comments made by project partners in Chile, especially Dr. Eduardo Sanhueza Flores (CC&D, Chile) and Dr. Haris Doukas (NTUA, Greece), whose helpful remarks and fruitful observations were invaluable for development of this work. The content of the paper is the sole responsibility of its authors and does not necessary reflect the views of the EC. In addition, Charikleia Karakosta wishes to acknowledge with gratitude the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation for supporting her PhD research.