Almost everyone comes to this law with the same question: does it require anything of me? For most companies, today, the answer is not yet, at least not directly. There are two clear exceptions: facilities that report through the RETC single window (Ventanilla Única), and entities registered in the CMF Securities Registry.
The rest is a framework the State is still filling in with regulations and plans. This guide walks through what the law already says, article by article, and marks what was still undefined on October 10, 2026. If you neither report to the RETC nor are registered with the CMF, you can go straight to the section "What is still unknown", near the end.
The law in two lines
Law 21,455, the Framework Law on Climate Change, was enacted on May 30, 2022 and published in the Official Gazette on June 13, 2022.
Article 4 sets the goal: reach greenhouse gas neutrality by 2050 at the latest. The Ministry of the Environment evaluates it every five years.
How the goal reaches your industry
The law splits the goal into instruments, from the most general to the most local.
| Instrument | What it does | Article |
|---|---|---|
| Long-Term Climate Strategy | Sets the 30-year guidelines and assigns an emissions budget to each sector | 5 |
| Nationally Determined Contribution | Contains Chile's commitments to the international community | 7 |
| Sectoral Mitigation Plans | Set each sector's measures to stay within its emissions budget | 8 |
| Sectoral Adaptation Plans | Set each sector's measures to adapt | 9 |
| Regional and municipal plans | Bring the strategy to each region and municipality | 11 and 12 |
Of that list, the one worth reading is the sectoral plan for your industry. The measures and regulations that later reach you show up there first. We found two published in the Official Gazette: Mining, on December 19, 2025, and Energy, on December 26, 2025.
If you report to the RETC
Article 41 establishes that facilities required to report through the single window of the Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (RETC) must report every year the greenhouse gases and short-lived climate forcers they emit.
Article 45 adds the consequence: those who do not comply will be sanctioned by the Superintendency of the Environment, under its organic law.
Which sources and which emissions go into that report is for a regulation to define. We come back to that below.
If you are registered with the CMF
The law amended three statutes to bring climate into financial information.
Article 50 carries the most weight. Entities in the Securities Registry must disclose, at least once a year, their environmental and climate change impacts, including how they identify, assess and manage those risks, along with the corresponding metrics. The CMF defines the format, and that is what NCG 461 and NCG 519 develop. We explain it in the NCG 461 and NCG 519 guide.
Articles 51 and 52 do something similar for fund managers and pension fund administrators: they must disclose how they incorporate environmental factors and climate change into their policies.
Emission limits: the tool exists, the standards do not
Article 14 empowers the Ministry of the Environment to issue standards that set the maximum amount of greenhouse gases a facility, an emitting source or a group of them may emit. The limit is defined against a reference standard by technology, sector or activity, and is reviewed every five years.
The regulation on how those standards are drafted was published in the Official Gazette on July 26, 2025. As for actual greenhouse gas emission standards, we found none published. Today the law does not by itself set a limit for a company.
Certificates for compliance
Article 15 allows an emission standard to be met with certificates for emission reductions or removals achieved through projects in Chile. Those reductions must be additional, measurable, verifiable and permanent.
The Superintendency of the Environment verifies compliance using each facility's emissions, a report made at least once a year and the certificates credited. A certificate that has been used is cancelled.
If you are assessing a project
Article 40 requires projects entering the Environmental Impact Assessment System to consider the climate change variable in the relevant environmental components. They must also describe how they relate to the sectoral mitigation and adaptation plans and to regional and local instruments.
Voluntary certification
Article 30 creates the Voluntary Certification System for Greenhouse Gases and Water Use. The Ministry of the Environment may grant certificates, labels or seals for the quantification, management and reporting of emissions, and for their reduction or removal.
The law does not name the HuellaChile Program, which is the same ministry's voluntary carbon management program. If you want official recognition today, the route is in the Programa Huella Chile guide.
What is still unknown
This is the uncomfortable part of the law, and we would rather say it plainly.
We did not find the regulation that must define the Article 41 report published in the Official Gazette as of October 10, 2026. Until it is out, there is no way to know for certain which sources, which gases or from which year a facility will have to report.
It is also unknown which sectors will get an emission standard first, or with what limit.
What can be anticipated is the shape of the requirement. Both the RETC and the emission standards look at facilities and sources. A footprint that only exists as a company total will be of little use when they arrive.
What we would do in your place
Measure now, with the GHG Protocol or ISO 14064-1, and keep the detail by facility. The GHG Protocol and ISO 14064 guide explains how the two methods relate.
Check whether your facilities report through the single window. If they do, Article 41 already names you and only the detail is missing.
Read the sectoral plan for your industry when it is published.
Grumbic calculates the footprint from your invoices and keeps every figure linked to its document. See the platform or talk to us.
Sources
Information reviewed on October 10, 2026 in Chile's Library of the National Congress and the Official Gazette. This guide is informational and does not replace legal advice.
- Law 21,455, Framework Law on Climate Change, Library of the National Congress (in Spanish)
- Regulation for drafting greenhouse gas emission standards, Official Gazette, July 26, 2025 (in Spanish)
- Sectoral Mitigation and Adaptation Plan for Mining, Official Gazette, December 19, 2025 (in Spanish)
- Sectoral Mitigation and Adaptation Plan for Energy, Official Gazette, December 26, 2025 (in Spanish)
