photo by: Municipality of Tocopilla

This drone shot shows an aerial view of the City of Tocopilla and the mountains and ocean that surround it.

Starting Monday, the City of Lawrence is welcoming a delegation of Chilean officials and U.S. Department of Energy representatives to celebrate the new sister city agreement between Lawrence and Tocopilla, Chile.

The sister city agreement between Lawrence and Tocopilla, a city of about 25,000 along the coast of northern Chile, was officially approved in March. The agreement was formed in partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Net-Zero World Initiative, which began in 2021 as a partnership between countries working to transition to net zero energy systems.

The City of Lawrence has three other sister city agreements with Eutin, Germany; Hiratsuka, Japan; and Iniades, Greece. These sister cities are more culture-based, however, whereas the Chilean agreement is specifically related to the environment and energy.

As part of the official visit, which will run from Monday to Thursday, the delegation will tour the Watkins Museum of History, Peaslee Tech, the KU School of Engineering, Baker Wetlands and the downtown South American restaurant Delicias del Sur. All of that will culminate with the signing of the sister city agreement by Lawrence Mayor Bart Littlejohn and Tocopilla Mayor Ljubica Kurtovic at 9:30 a.m. Thursday.

Littlejohn said he is excited for the agreement and hopes it can help the communities work on achieving common aims of improving education and reaching sustainability goals.

“We can learn a lot from each other and ways to grow our economies while striving to meet our environmental goals,” Littlejohn said.