In the midst of a pandemic that continues to be present in the world, Chile and Chileans have gained international recognition for innovating and being at the forefront in sustainability, science, culture, always seeking solutions to improve the quality of life of people in various parts of the world. This is a review of the main events that showed how Chile contributed to continue creating the future in 2021. Let's go there!
Accelerated pace of vaccination: one year after the beginning of the vaccination process, and thanks to the collaboration of all Chileans, 16.5 million people have a complete primary vaccination schedule. Chile has been highlighted as the country that had the best performance in virus control, in addition to having reached in some periods the record of the country that vaccinated faster, the one with more booster doses applied, and being considered by Bloomberg as the best country to face variants such as Omicron. On the other hand, this year Sinovac announced the installation of a factory in Chile to produce vaccines for all Latin America.
Electoral processes: in addition to the presidential elections, the year 2021 was marked by several other electoral processes, including parliamentary, municipal and constitutional convention elections, and the first election of regional governors in history. The constitutional convention, which will provide a new Constitution for Chile, was installed in July, and its president, Elisa Loncon, was elected 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.
The year of renewable energies: Chile was positioned, for the fourth consecutive year, among the top places in the world in attractiveness for investments in clean energies, according to Bloomberg's Climatescope 2021. In addition, our country hosted the CEM12/MI6 global summit, the most important meeting on clean energy and innovation in 2021. Several announcements or projects were inaugurated during the year. In June Cerro Dominador, the first solar power plant in Latin America, was inaugurated, and in September the construction of Horizonte, which will be the largest wind farm in Latin America, was announced. In 2021, the construction of the largest green hydrogen plant in Latin America, Haru Oni, was also started, and in December, the 6 winning companies or consortiums of the financing round of the National Green Hydrogen Strategy were announced, with projects that will attract investments of US$ 1 billion.
Pioneer in the fight against climate change: Chile handed over the presidency of the COP to the United Kingdom, at a meeting held in Glasgow. In the context of COP26, the country's Long Term Climate Strategy (LCS) was handed over to the UN, which establishes the concrete sectoral goals that will allow Chile to be carbon neutral and climate resilient by 2050, as requested by science to face the impacts of climate change.
Chinchorro, new World Heritage Site: 2021 was also a key year for Chilean culture and heritage, after Unesco declared the sites and artificial mummification of Chinchorro (in the region of Arica and Parinacota) a World Heritage Site, becoming the seventh Chilean site on the World Heritage List. The site presents the oldest known archaeological evidence of artificial mummification of bodies.
Two Chilean startups reach the category of unicorn: Cornershop first, and NotCo later, became the first Chilean unicorns, which means to say, startups that reached a valuation of 1 billion dollars. This is happening in an environment that has been applauded worldwide: Chile is the second country in the world for early-stage entrepreneurship, according to the IMD 2021 ranking, as well as being chosen as the safest country for investments in Latin America, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit, the first in Latin America in potential to attract foreign investments, according to the Milken Institute, and leader in innovation in the region.
Best adventure tourism destination in the world: for the sixth consecutive year, Chile was chosen as the best adventure tourism destination in the world, an award that is conferred annually by the World Travel Awards. In addition, Chile was chosen for the seventh consecutive year as the Best Adventure Travel Destination in South America, and for the first time, the Atacama Desert was chosen as the best romantic destination.
50 years of Neruda's Nobel Prize: 2021 was also the year of great anniversaries that show how Chile inspired the world. Not only the 50th anniversary of the Nobel Prize to Pablo Neruda was completed, but it was also the centenary of the internationalization of Gabriela Mistral's career, and the 10th anniversary of the Cervantes Prize to Nicanor Parra. In terms of inspiration, Chile also stood out for its participation in the Oscars with the film "El Agente Topo"(AgentDuplo), by Maite Alberdi, and for the success of the film "Spencer", by Pablo Larraín, which was chosen as the best film of the year by Variety magazine.
A new Chilean dinosaur: probably one of the most important scientific announcements of the year came from the region of Magalhães, after the discovery of an enigmatic fossil, which revealed the existence of a lineage, previously unknown, of dinosaurs. The discovery of Stegouros elengassen, a species approximately 74 million years old, was covered by Nature magazine, and was qualified as the "Rosetta Stone" of the ankylosaurs of the Southern Hemisphere.
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, allowed us to position this territory as a natural laboratory, and to qualify us as an astronomical pole.
