{"id":3428,"date":"2019-03-12T01:28:47","date_gmt":"2019-03-12T01:28:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/?p=3428"},"modified":"2019-03-12T01:28:47","modified_gmt":"2019-03-12T01:28:47","slug":"costa-rica-unveils-plan-to-achieve-zero-emissions-by-2050-in-climate-change-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/2019\/03\/12\/costa-rica-unveils-plan-to-achieve-zero-emissions-by-2050-in-climate-change-fight\/","title":{"rendered":"Costa Rica unveils plan to achieve zero emissions by 2050 in climate change fight"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Costa Rica<\/a> has launched an economy-wide plan to \u201cdecarbonize\u201d the country by 2050, as the Central American nation aims to show other nations what is possible to address climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Environment minister, Carlos Manuel Rodr\u00edguez, said that if the plan is achieved, his grandchildren in 2035 will have the same carbon footprint as his grandparents did in the 1940s \u2013 and by 2050 his grandchildren will have none at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNot only are we going to reduce that footprint but we are going to bring many benefits with it,\u201d Rodr\u00edguez said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Jairo Quir\u00f3s, an electrical energy researcher at the University of Costa Rica<\/a>, warned the plan would be challenging, and \u201cshould be viewed with some caution\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under the roadmap launched Sunday, Costa Rica by 2050 would achieve \u201czero net emissions\u201d, meaning it would produce no more emissions than it can offset through things such as maintaining and expanding its extensive forests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such emission cuts are key to holding increases in global temperature to well under 2C (3.6F), the goal of the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Costa Rica plan aims to allow the country to continue growing economically while cutting greenhouse gases. The country\u2019s economy grew at 3% last year, according to World Bank data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christiana Figueres, the Costa Rican former UN climate chief, called the goal \u201cunprecedented\u201d in international politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All that glitters is not green: Costa Rica’s renewables conceal dependence on oil<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

 Read more<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only the government of the tiny Marshall Islands also has laid out a detailed plan to achieve that goal, but \u201cthey still do not have the whole plan articulated sector by sector\u201d, Figueres told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Carlos Alvarado noted that while Costa Rica represents only a tiny share of the world\u2019s climate-changing emissions, the plan could be a model for other nations.Advertisement<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe can be that example \u2013 we have to inspire people,\u201d he said at the plan\u2019s launch,.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Quir\u00f3s, of the University of Costa Rica, warned the plan will take hard work to achieve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some goals, he said, such as ensuring all buses and taxis run on electricity by 2050, may be difficult<\/a>, not least because the changes will be expensive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Transport today creates about 40% of Costa Rica\u2019s climate-changing emissions, making it the largest single source of them, according to the National Meteorological Institute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new plan aims to modernize public transport, including through the creation of an electric train line\ufeff that would connect 15 of the 31 neighborhoods in the San Jos\u00e9 metropolitan area, according to the Costa Rican Institute of Railways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Construction on the lines is expected to start in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under Costa Rica\u2019s decarbonization plan, the number of cars circulating in urban areas would be cut by half by 2040, the environment minister said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By 2035, 70% of the country\u2019s buses would be electric and 25% of its cars, Rodr\u00edguez added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Head in the clouds: the woman scaling fresh climate change heights<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

 Read more<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Costa Rica does not have a fossil fuel extraction industry, but dependence on oil revenue could still cause problems. Fuel taxes, vehicle import taxes and driving taxes currently account for about 12% of government revenue, the minister said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To phase out fossil fuels without slashing government income, the government will need to push for \u201cgreen tax reform\u201d to find new revenue sources, he said \u2013 which would need legislative approval.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under the plan, the country\u2019s state-owned petroleum distributor would change course and begin research on alternative fuels, such as hydrogen and biofuels, and look at helping fossil fuel workers move to clean energy jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The plan also calls for further expanding forests \u2013 though at the moment most of the money to pay for that comes from taxes on fossil fuels, Rodr\u00edguez admitted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the 1960s and 70s, Costa Rica had the highest per capita deforestation rate in the world. We have managed not only to stop deforestation but to double forest coverage\u201d as the economy grew, Rodr\u00edguez said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year, 98% of the country\u2019s electricity came from renewable sources, according to the Costa Rican Electricity Institute, the state-owned company in charge of electricity generation and distribution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quir\u00f3s, the University of Costa Rica researcher, said the country\u2019s plan, while \u201ca little utopian\u201d was clearly \u201ca step in the right direction\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s good to be ambitious,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Costa Rica has launched an economy-wide plan to \u201cdecarbonize\u201d the country by 2050, as the Central American nation aims to show other nations what is possible to address climate change. Environment minister, Carlos Manuel Rodr\u00edguez, said that if the plan is achieved, his grandchildren in 2035 will have the same carbon footprint as his grandparents did in the 1940s \u2013 and… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":125,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/125"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3428"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3429,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3428\/revisions\/3429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}