Santiago de Chile, November 20 (teleSUR-RHC)-- Mayors from 45 cities throughout Chile have signed a declaration committing to fight against climate change and requesting to be included in climate change policy.

The document was submitted to the Minister of Environment Pablo Badenier leading up to the United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP21) which will soon get underway in the French capital.

“During the conference (COP21) that will take place in Paris, countries will look to reach an agreement in order to reduce carbon emissions. Chile seeks to play an important role in these negotiations,” the Mayor of Santiago Carolina Tohá stated.

Chilean officials signed the document during a day-long conference held in the Chilean capital city of Santiago, in which they issued calls to expedite the implementation of climate mitigation policies.  Chile's share of the world's greenhouse gas emissions amounts only to 0.28 percent.

However, according to the country's latest emissions report, emissions have increased by 83.5 percent since 1990, making them the second-largest per-capita climate polluter in Latin America, behind Venezuela, with an average of 5.3 tons per person.

In recent years, the Chilean government has taken several steps to institutionalize efforts to mitigate climate change.

In 2008, Chile launched its first National Climate Change Action Plan, for the period from 2008 to 2014, to gather information on what was happening in the country, identify the baselines for emissions cuts and measure other key variables.

In 2014, Chile became the first country in South America to approve a carbon tax because of concerns about the potential impact of climate change on the country’s extensive glacier system.

​Over the past year, Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Colombia, Chile, Bolivia and Peru have all either approved or announced an intent to legislate policies to cut greenhouse gas emissions and cope with the impacts of climate-provoked weather disasters.