Although more than 110 countries have committed to achieving the zero-emissions vision, better known as the Paris Agreement of 2015, few countries have adopted laws or implemented plans to achieve the goal. Costa Rica is one of the countries that took matters into their own hands when in 2019 they adopted a decarbonisation plan to create green economic growth and at the same time reduce pollution and emissions of greenhouse gases. Impressively, the country has already reached 61 percent of the sub-goals set out in the first of three steps in the national decarbonisation plan – including in the transport sector. In addition, it was predicted that they would reach 83 percent by the end of 2022, according to the report “Advances in the implementation of the National Decarbonization Plan” presented by the country’s government at the beginning of 2022. “Decarbonization is Costa Rica’s commitment to present and future generations. It means turning the development model into a sustainable model, free of fossil fuels, which improves the country’s competitiveness and the quality of life of people. The goal is to be a country with zero emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050,” Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, Minister of Environment and Energy in Costa Rica, said about the plan when it was launched, the umbrella organization Pathways Platform 2050 writes on its website. Green revolution The National Decarbonization Plan sets out to revolutionize Costa Rica’s transport, energy, industrial, waste and agricultural and agricultural sectors so that the country’s inhabitants and its economy will be strengthened, modernized and emission-free by 2050. In the first stage (2018-2022) the focus was to facilitate possible future decarbonisation in practice. It is followed by the current stage (2023-2030), and then by a third and final one (2031-2050). Economic growth thus does not have to come at the expense of the climate and environment. Costa Rica, on the other hand, is not the only country that is trying to follow up on the Paris Agreement’s goal of becoming emission-free by 2050. Despite the fact that it is often small and poor countries that feel the effects of climate change first, it also turns out that it is these who have often come the furthest on the road to the goal. Certain countries such as Bhutan, followed by Suriname – two small forested countries in Southeast Asia and South America respectively – have already become the world’s first countries to absorb more carbon dioxide than they emit. Panama is also well on its way in the same direction.
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Costa Rica is leading the fight against climate change with an ambitious decarbonisation plan
