AIR QUALITY:

• Stringent air pollution control measures were first introduced in 1990.
• The Air Pollution Prevention and Cleanup Plan (PPDA), designed to control emissions from industrial and public transportation sources, was adopted in 1998.
• Air pollution events trigger contingency plans designed to rapidly decrease pollution to manageable levels.
• Incentives encourage cleaner technology use. In addition, the quality of the fuel supply has been substantially improved.
• Providing compelling evidence of success in this area, critical air pollution events fell from over 70 in 1989 to just 6 in 2008.
• The most recent environmental emergency incident -the most critical of air pollution events- took place as far back as 2001.

RESULTS:

• Airborne particulate material (PM 2.5) dropped 52 percent in the 1990s.
• Target reached while the economy grew apace.
• No air quality emergencies since 2000.
• Air quality near-emergencies dropped to under 10 a year starting in 2001.
• The PPDA is being replicated elsewhere in Chile.

As a direct consequence of the measures adopted, critical events dropped to fewer than 10 a year while particulate material levels (PM 2.5, a particularly harmful pollutant) dropped 52 percent during the nineties. This was achieved at a time of rapid growth in which the regional GDP grew 100 percent.

OUTLOOK

Since Chile continues to grow apace, air pollution prevention and control measures, especially in Santiago, are constantly tightened. The intent is to keep critical incidents to a minimum and prevent air pollution issues from escalating to unacceptable levels.

To achieve this, standing plans include improving fuel quality, phasing out older buses from the Santiago public transit system, opening up new bus routes, and providing financial incentives to control pollution. In addition, the mining sector will be required to deploy Pollution Control Plans.