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It is mid-afternoon and the sun is burning along Nueva Costanera Avenue, in Vitacura, in the eastern sector of the city.
The line of leafy trees cushions the weight of the heat a little and soon Raúl Deves Square appears.
Just three blocks away is another green lung, Bicentenario Park, an urban area on an area of 30 hectares, which has an exercise route for dogs, areas for sports and
picnics
, trails and spaces adapted for children.
On the other side of the city, in the commune of Lo Prado, located on the outskirts and about 17 kilometers from Vitacura, green areas decrease drastically.
The blocks that separate San Pablo Avenue from the nearest metro station have a stadium on one side and an open space without grass or trees on the other.
An almost improvised soccer field operates.
The sun hits the cement and the thermal sensation seems higher than the 33 degrees indicated on the thermometer.
A fan in the Celeste Hora room, essential for the Chilean summer.
SOFÍA YANJARÍ
Santiago de Chile has had temperatures above 30 degrees for weeks.
A record heat wave that, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service, has been affecting the planet for eight consecutive months.
Added to this are the consequences of the El Niño phenomenon, which means an extension of high temperatures until March.
Climate change has caused more extreme temperatures to be experienced in both summer and winter.
In this context, access to high-quality energy services to cover fundamental and basic needs that allow human development to be sustained is essential.
A household that does not have access to face these conditions is in a situation of energy poverty, a problem that reflects inequality and that in countries like Chile is very marked by the budget difference of each municipality, which invests according to its income for each inhabitant of its commune: while Vitacura has an annual municipal budget close to 1,100,000 pesos (1,133 dollars) per capita, the commune of Lo Prado only has around 175,068 pesos (180 dollars) per capita, according to data from the Fiscal Expenditure Observatory in Chili.
Anahí Urquiza, researcher at the Center for Climate and Resilience Science, says that in countries like Chile, energy poverty does not seem evident because it is not about having access to electricity, but rather it is the type of problem that affects middle-income countries. and that goes more unnoticed by public opinion, since they are chronic issues that require long-term structural solutions.
Anahí Urquiza in Santiago.SOFÍA YANJARÍ
According to a study carried out by the Cities Corporation, in which the areas with the highest temperatures in the last 10 years in the Chilean capital were analyzed, the communes in the northwestern sector were the most affected by the maximum daily temperatures, registering differences of up to 6 .7 degrees with the eastern sector.
Urquiza focuses on the quality of the service and how other levels of impact on health are involved.
“The temperature inside a home on the outskirts has nothing to do with the temperature of a home in the upper neighborhoods and that has implications for health, mainly among the groups that have the most difficulty regulating temperature, which are the elderly. and children.
It has been possible to study, for example, that older people sleep poorly,” says Urquiza, who is also coordinator of the Energy Poverty Network.
Two opposite realities
Celeste Hora is sitting in the dining room right in front of the only electric fan she has in her house, where she lives with her husband, her two daughters and her granddaughter.
This morning she took the opportunity to clean and tidy up before the heat prevents her from concentrating on her household chores.
She prepares the two rooms in her apartment by closing the windows and putting up dark curtains because from 2 pm the sun hits directly and the temperature begins to rise.
Although she has lived in this building in Villa Santa Anita Poniente, in the Lo Prado commune, for 20 years, she has noticed a change in the seasons during the last decade.
"It is a big difference.
Before we knew when summer came and when winter came.
Nowadays we find many surprises because summer came much earlier,” she says Hora.
Celeste Hora in the living room of her house in Lo Prado, in Santiago.SOFÍA YANJARÍ
This neighborhood leader tells América Futura how high temperatures affect her sleep at night and the quality of life of her entire family.
"It is awful.
And even more so when one is going through a complicated age, it is worse.”
According to the registry managed by Hora, in this neighborhood council of 17 buildings at least 40% of the inhabitants are older adults.
Built 50 years ago, the Villa Santa Anita Poniente apartments have structural conditions that do not make it easy to avoid extreme temperatures.
Celeste Hora points to the small, single window in her living room.
”She is original to the department.
I have not been able to change it due to economic reasons.
This window doesn't allow for good ventilation because it barely opens ten centimeters, so the wind doesn't flow well and it gets stuck.
It doesn't open anymore because they are old, but at some point it can be changed,” she says.
The same thing happens in the winter, when the cold creeps in due to lack of good insulation and the deterioration that comes with the passing of the years.
Although the neighbors and the board of which he is a part have organized to improve their conditions and quality of life, Hora recognizes that the priorities at this time are different.
Some time ago they proposed replacing asbestos to improve the ceilings and thus avoid the leaks they suffered in winter.
What follows will be to change the health networks that are collapsed.
Replacing or reinforcing windows will have to wait.
The solution for the moment has been to use electric heating in winter, because although those that use fuel heat more, Hora is asthmatic and due to her health she cannot afford it.
“We only have to cover ourselves with clothes,” he says.
And he recognizes that the neighborhoods that are better conditioned depend on having a neighborhood organization that seeks and allocates resources to improve common areas and housing conditions.
Celeste always leaves the windows and curtains closed so that her house stays cool.SOFÍA YANJARÍ
Across town, María Sol González has noticed a change since she arrived in Santiago from Buenos Aires 10 years ago.
She now feels a heat at night that motivated her to install air conditioning, something very common in her native country but in Chile it is still prohibitive due to the high cost it entails.
“Now it's like everyone is thinking about it,” says González.
Together with her husband and three small children, they live in Vitacura, where in 2019 they bought the old house they rented and completely remodeled it.
González and her family considered the new weather conditions when choosing materials and designing their new home.
Almost all windows and bay windows are made of thermopanel, which helps with thermal regulation.
You just have to walk through the front door to feel the difference in temperature.
Inside the house there is a microclimate that allows both her and her husband to telework without major inconveniences.
In addition, it has a terrace surrounded by trees, plants and in the background, a pool where her children spend their summer days.
In previous homes, González had to spend up to 400,000 pesos (about $412) on electricity bills to ensure that the winter cold did not affect the interior of her home or the health of her family.
“Vitacura is full of squares, full of trees,” she adds, aware of the difference with other communes where extreme weather hits harder.
“Climate change is a profound problem of inequality and finally it is also an opportunity so that, by facing it, other areas of life can be improved,” says researcher Anahí Urquiza.
A swimming pool in Sol González's house helps them cope with the high summer temperatures in Santiago.Sofía Yanjarí
Along these same lines, it points out that the need to move towards a fair energy transition must go hand in hand with reducing energy poverty and the gaps that exist between the population, aware that we must move to a zero-carbon energy matrix because in context of climate change conditions are worsening.
“The issue is that when we move there we have to take charge of the Sustainable Development Goals.
In other words, we cannot transition to a clean energy matrix if that means that we worsen the living conditions of the population.”
Urquiza believes that public policies must move forward in raising housing standards massively, as has been done in countries like Spain, where improving thermal comfort has meant improving health and quality of life.
“It's not about filling us with air conditioning either,” adds the expert.