First of all, Costa Rica’s newly elected president is vowing to take the historic step of decarbonising the entire country. It’s so cool because in my Masters Program I did research on how Costa Rica. More over and certainly it Can Go net zero or even net negative.
In addition, President Carlos Alvarado made the pledge in his inauguration speech this week. All where he described the “titanic and beautiful task” of abolishing the use of fossil fuels.
“Decarbonisation is the great task of our generation. So Costa Rica must be among the first countries in the world to do it. If not being the first,” he said.
As VOX commented, he went on recently. All to set a target of 2020 for the country. That’s to be leading the way on progress towards the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement. As well as aiming to become a “laboratory” for cleaning up the economy. The deal binds countries to keep global temperatures to well below 2 degrees Celsius.
The 2020 date is significant. Because not only as the time in which the Paris accord comes into force. Yet it’s closely preceding Costa Rica’s 200th anniversary of independence.
“For the bicentennial we have an ethical duty to lead the world, as we have done in the past. Costa Rica must be agile and creative. Because Costa Rican’s are called to protect ecosystems and protect biodiversity,” he added.
In doing so he committed to greater management of Costa Rica’s national parks. That which make up an estimated 25 percent of the entire country parks. Consequently, they are a major tourist attraction.
In conclusion, Costa Rica has already made strong progress towards the transition to a fully sustainable and low-carbon economy. In addition, its plentiful supplies of both hydropower and geothermal mean that almost all of its electricity is renewable. Furthermore and in 2017, it went 300 days without using fossil fuels. I mean for its electricity needs.
Finally and in 2019, Intelligent Living reports, Costa Rica is in the top 5 of countries that are leading the way into renewable resources. It might also seem small but it has a really big environmental impact. That’s because and since 2014 the country’s energy has been coming from 99% renewable sources. More over it has been running on 100% renewable energy for over two months. As well as twice in the last two years. Then, since June 2017 they have been set on eradicating single-use plastic by 2021. The first be the first country in the world to do this. And most recently, in the summer of 2018, the country announced its aims to become completely carbon-neutral by the year 2021 – The first completely carbon-free country in the whole world.
“Basing [electricity] generation on renewable resources allows the country to achieve one of the lowest ratios of greenhouse gas emissions to electrical consumption on the planet,” the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) indicated in a statement.
Over the past 4 years, Costa Rica has generated all but 1 percent of its electricity from renewable sources such as its rivers, volcanoes, wind and solar power. The hydroelectric plant on the Reventazón River, on the Caribbean slope, began operations in 2016. It’s the largest plant of its kind in Central America. They also have seven wind turbine plants, six hydroelectric plants and a solar plant. A statement from ICE indicated that ¾ of renewable energy came from hydroelectric plants using river water; the rest was geothermal and wind power, with biomass then solar power constituting the smallest percentage.
Finally and for the rest of the story
