CHILE

In 2019, the Chilean government announced a decarbonization plan designed to shut down the nation’s entire coal fleet by 2040. At the time, more than 30% of Chile’s electricity was supplied by the country’s 28 operating coal-fired units, which had a combined capacity of 5,541 megawatts (MW), mostly fueled by imported coal. The government’s original plan called for the shutdown of eight units totaling 1,069 MW by 2024, which was achieved by midyear – with the remainder to be decommissioned between 2025 and 2040. In 2024, coal accounted for 14.5% of electricity generation in the country.

Chile has put in place an ambitious coal power phaseout strategy, and it appears likely that the Chilean power system will be coal free sooner than 2040. Chile’s Paris climate pledge, laid out in the 2020 revision of its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) report, calls for the country to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, in large part due to the shutdown of its coal fleet. In September 2021, Chile was part of the coalition of national governments that launched the No New Coal Power Compact, which requires supporters to cease permitting of new coal power plants and end new construction of unabated coal plants by the end of 2021. In 2021, Chile also joined the Powering Past Coal Alliance (PPCA), pledging to take significant steps to bring forward its 2040 phaseout deadline.

In its most recent NDC, submitted in September 2025, Chile established a cumulative greenhouse gas emissions budget not to exceed 1,100 Mt CO2e in the period 2020 to 2030, with emissions peaking by 2025. In addition, the country set an emissions budget that will not exceed 480 MtCO2e between 2031 and 2035. The updated NDC reaffirmed Chile's commitment to phase out coal power by 2040, and set a target of at least 80% renewable energy share in the electricity mix by 2030.

Chile’s revised National Decarbonization Plan, released in October 2025, adjusted the timeline for the remaining coal units. The updated plan lists 12 units with potential retirement dates extending as late as 2040, compared with eight units identified in the 2024 draft version of the plan. Unlike the earlier draft, the 2025 plan does not specify which units are scheduled for retirement, although the additional units without fixed retirement dates are understood to include Ventanas 3 and 4 and Angamos 1 and 2.

As of early 2026, Chile had 3,117 MW of operational coal-fired power capacity, with approximately 1,457 MW scheduled to retire within the following year. The country retired 277 MW of coal capacity in 2024 and a further 709 MW in 2025. Over the past decade, Chile has retired a total of 2,399 MW of coal-fired power capacity.