5. Climate Change Impacts on the Energy Sector and Adaptation Options

This chapter demonstrates the future impacts of climate change on the energy sector in the Metropolitan Region of Santiago de Chile (MRS) and develops measures to reduce problems ahead. The investigation is based firstly on an overview of recent energy supply and demand in the MRS. Existing data taken from the literature and interviews indicates that only a small amount of the energy consumed in the MRS is produced on its territory. Secondly, this chapter makes use of a description of the framework scenarios outlined in Chap. 3, where two quantitative scenarios for the supply and demand of energy were created for the MRS. Both scenarios see an increase in the consumption and supply of energy. Thirdly, a calculation was made for the future influence of climate change on the energy supply and demand. Using a methodology of fixed correlations between rising temperatures and energy consumption, it indicates that climate change will have a relatively low impact on energy supply and demand. So dependence of the MRS on energy imports is expected to rise even further in the future. Four measures were designed for implementation in the MRS as a response to future problems.