Recherche pétrolière et gazière

Abstrait

The Decarbonization Plan to transform Costa Rica in a free-emission country by 2050

Manuel URENA

Costa Rica is a country of only 51.000 km2, located in Central America, a region between the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. With a population of only 5 million citizens, this country stands out for its history of successes and interest in becoming a green hub for innovation, management and knowledge transfer. Costa Rica outstands as a particular Latin American nation because since December 1st, 1948, a victorious revolutionary general, abolished the country’s army; since then, this small country has destined its military budget to education. This decision has made Costa Rica, a different country, a regional referent, which has led the World Bank, to catalogue the nation as a “history of success in terms of development”. The country does not stop, and it is clear that the best it can do, is to establish measures to lower the impact it has regarding climate change; hence becoming a decarbonization lab. Through this direction, what Costa Rica aims is at becoming a referent for all countries willing to take affirmative actions to tackle this global challenge. Even though the transition to a low emission economy requires profound transformations, it is highlighted that Costa Rica has achieved important advancements in previous decades, including an electric network with more than 95% free emissions and very low rates of deforestation, with a forest area that included more than 52% of the country’s territory. During the year 2019, energy production was 99% based on renewable sources, coming from wind, water, geothermic, biomass and solar (70% of its was hydraulic).