Several cities across the country experience poor air quality associated with residential combustion and transportation. Given this, the Chilean government included decontamination plans and a diesel tax in the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) for the Paris Agreement. Furthermore, our cities are highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, such as floods, droughts, heat waves and health problems. These threats are compounded by social inequality and urban segregation.
The (CR)2 has developed and implemented models, emission inventories and other tools, in addition to comprehensive diagnoses and analyzes of urban issues. However, there is a need to better understand the dynamics between energy, land use, emissions, demographics, governance, and social and biophysical processes.
To do this, the research team will examine urban impacts on different time scales: from paleoclimatic records of the first human settlements in Chile to projections of possible conditions for cities in future climate scenarios.
The social sciences area of our group will work to understand how society, from local communities to national authorities, is adapting to changes in extreme events, through research focused on current practices, their usefulness, the barriers for implementation and opportunities for improvement.
