'The winter months are worse and often the only respite is when the rain clears the air, this year the rains are later than usual, leaving many of the cities residents gasping.'

Martin Piper on a seminar by Al Gore in Santiago, the capital of Chile which is choked by pollution

It seemed fitting that the day after Al Gore’s visit to Santiago for a seminar on climate change and global warming, the authorities called a “pre-emergency” situation as the city’s residents suffered the worst levels of pollution for eight years.

Chile’s capital has a unique backdrop as it rests against the breath-taking Andean mountain range, however the view is often obscured due to thick pollution that cannot rise above the mountains and sits trapped over the city.

The winter months are worse and often the only respite is when the rain clears the air, this year the rains are later than usual, leaving many of the cities residents gasping.

More than 1,700 people attended Al Gore’s seminar held on May 11th, 2007. Among them, politicians, businessmen, scientists, and other interested parties such as NGO’s. One ex-president, Ricardo Lagos, also in attendance was recently nominated as a UN climate change ambassador.

Message

The underlying message throughout the seminar was that economic development could go hand in hand with sound environmental policies. “The time to act has arrived,” was the slogan repeated by Chile’s president Michelle Bachelet at the close of the seminar.

The country is heavily dependent on natural gas and petroleum imports. Cleaner burning natural gas supplies have been steadily decreasing however, which has lead many industries to turn to more environmentally damaging alternatives.

Chile, by no means the world’s worst polluter, is recognised as one of the countries that will be most affected by climate change as the impacts are felt closer to the world’s polar regions.

The region of Patagonia also holds the largest ice sheets outside of the poles. These ice fields are retreating at an alarming rate and it has been estimated that these melting glaciers will contribute to over 8% of the world’s sea level rise.

Long-term effects of climate change combined with Chile’s immediate national emergency are pushing the country to take environmental matters seriously.

Chile’s environmental minister, Ana Lya Uriarte, stated that the government has been working for many years on how to tackle the problem of climate change. “There is a national advisory board and the country is in accordance with the Kyoto protocol,” she said.

Concern

Speaking to most residents of Santiago however, the topic of most concern is the public transport overhaul, the system known as Transantiago was promised to reduce contamination by up to 75% making pollution warnings a thing of the past.

Not only is this not the case but also residents are angry, as the system was late in starting and lacks many of the promised routes, leaving many stranded.

The University of Chile has however recently created an emissions inventory to determine the worst sources of pollution affecting the area, early studies conclude that factories, rapid urban expansion, illegal waste burning and vehicles without catalytic converters are the causes of Santiago’s problems.

At an international level, Claudia McMurray, assistant to the US secretary for Environmental and Oceanic sciences, stated that the US and Chile will work together to improve the data gathered from the southeast Pacific region.

“To confront the threat of climate change is a moral obligation. In Chile, the United States and the whole world, the political will is a renewable resource,” concluded Mr Gore.

Martin Piper is a former employee of Christian Aid who now lives and works in South America.

These are personal comments and not necessarily the position of Christian Aid or its partners.

• Read other columns from Martin Piper