The 10 great milestones of Chile in sustainability, science and culture during 2021

This article was prepared by Fundación Imagen de Chile, which made a ranking with the different international recognitions to Chile for innovating and being at the forefront in sustainability, science and culture

In the midst of a pandemic that is still present in the world, Chile and Chileans have managed to be recognized internationally for innovate and be at the forefront in sustainability, science, culture, always looking for solutions to improve the quality of life of people in different parts of the world.

Here is a review of Fundación Imagen de Chile with the main milestones that showed how Chile contributed to continue creating the future in 2021. Let’s go for more!

1.- Best adventure tourism destination in the world:

For the sixth consecutive year, Chile was chosen as the best adventure tourism destination in the world, recognition that each year is awarded by theThe World Travel Awards. In addition, Chile was chosen for the seventh year in a row as the Best Adventure Tourism Destination in South America, and for the first time the Atacama Desert was chosen as the best romantic destination.

2.- Fifty years since Neruda’s Nobel: 2021 was also the year of great anniversaries that show how Chile has inspired the world. Not only were they fulfilled 50 years since the Nobel Prize was awarded to Pablo Neruda, it was also the centenary of the internationalization of Gabriela Mistral’s career, and the 10 years of the Cervantes award for Nicanor Parra. From the point of view of inspiration, Chile also stood out for being in the Oscar with the film “The Topo Agent”, by Maite Alberdi, and for the premiere of the film “Spencer”, by Pablo Larraín, which was voted the best movie of the year by Variety magazine.

3.- Accelerated vaccination rate: One year after the start of the vaccination process, and thanks to the collaboration of all Chileans, 16.5 million people have a complete primary scheme. Chile has been highlighted as the country that has performed the best in controlling the virus, in addition to having reached in some periods the record of the country that has vaccinated the fastest, the one with the most booster doses applied, and being considered by Bloomberg as the best country to face variants like the Omicron. On the other hand, this year Sinovac announced the installation of a plant in Chile to produce vaccines for all of Latin America.

4.- Electoral processes: In addition to the presidential elections, the year 2021 was marked by several other electoral processes, which included parliamentary, municipal and conventional constituent elections, and the first regional governor election in history. The The Constitutional Convention, which will propose a new Constitution for Chile, was installed in July, and its president, Elisa Loncon, was chosen among the 100 most influential people of the year by Time magazine, and as one of the 25 most influential women of the year, according to the Financial Times.

5.- The year of renewable energies:

Chile ranked for the fourth year in a row among the first places in the world in attractiveness for investment in clean energy, according to Bloomberg’s Climatescope 2021 report. In addition, our country was the host of the CEM12 / MI6 global summit, the most important clean energy and innovation meeting of 2021. There were several announcements or projects inaugurated during the year. In June it was inaugurated Cerro Dominador, the first thermosolar plant in Latin America, and in September the construction of Horizonte was announced, which will be the largest wind farm in Latin America. Also in 2021 the construction of the largest green hydrogen plant in Latin America, Haru Oni, and in December the 6 winning companies or consortiums of the financing round of the National Green Hydrogen Strategy were known, with projects that will attract investments of US $ 1 billion.

6.- Pioneer in the fight against climate change:

Chile handed over the presidency of the COP to the United Kingdom, in a meeting held in Glasgow. Within the framework of COP26, the country’s Long-Term Climate Strategy (ECLP) was delivered to the UN, which establishes the specific sectoral goals that will allow Chile to be carbon neutral and climate-resilient by 2050, as requested by the Science to deal with the impacts of climate change.

7.- Chinchorro, new World Heritage Site: 2021 was also a key year for Chilean culture and heritage, after the Unesco will declare the Chinchorro settlements and artificial mummification (in the Arica and Parinacota region) as a World Heritage Site, becoming the seventh Chilean site on the list of world heritage sites. The site features the oldest known archaeological evidence of artificial mummification of bodies.

8.- Two Chilean startups reach the category of unicorn: Cornershop first, and NotCo later, became the first Chilean unicorns, that is, startups that achieved a valuation of US $ 1 billion. This occurs in an environment that has been applauded worldwide: Chile is the second country in initial entrepreneurial activity in the world, according to the IMD 2021 ranking, in addition to being chosen the safest country to invest in Latin America, according to The Economist Intelligence Unit, the first in Latin America with the potential to attract foreign investment, according to the Milken Institute, and the region’s leader in innovation.

9.- A new Chilean dinosaur: Probably one of the most important scientific announcements of the year came from the Magellan region, after an enigmatic fossil was discovered, which revealed the existence of a hitherto unknown lineage of dinosaurs. The find of the Stegouros elengassen, a species of about 74 million years, It was on the cover of the journal Nature, and has been described as the “Rosetta Stone” of the ankylosaurs of the Southern Hemisphere.

10.- Chilean Antarctic Eclipse:

On December 4, a unique astronomical phenomenon occurred, which will not be repeated until 2039: a total solar eclipse in Antarctica. The unusual phenomenon, which had not occurred since 2003, made it possible to position that territory as a natural laboratory, and to empower us as an astronomical pole.