OUR PLANET MAGAZINE
CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE CRYOSPHERE
harmonizing national strategies with the development of a new and more
effective global governance system.
For its part, Costa Rica has decided to act immediately, unilaterally declaring
its goal to become carbon neutral. We are designing an integrated climate
change strategy to achieve this in such a way that this complex goal can be
replicated in other countries with similar characteristics.
This process is bringing the climate to the top of the government agenda.
The Administration that was elected last year included it as a priority in its
National Development Plan. Important segments of the private sector and
the media have already shown enthusiastic support, and society is beginning
to share the vision that a carbon-neutral economy is also a competitive one.
The strategy, clearly orientated to action, was defined around five
strategic components:
Measurement: This will develop an accurate, reliable and verifiable system
with built in mechanisms for monitoring.
Mitigation: This is focused on becoming a carbon neutral country with a vision
integrating complex environmental, health, economic, human, social, ethical,
economic, moral, cultural, educational and political issues with the national
competitiveness strategy. Promoting carbon neutral companies, regions and
communities -- and other stakeholders -- will provide both incentives for
action and an additional differentiation element for competitiveness.
Action will include these main elements: reducing emissions at source;
enhancing carbon sinks through reforestation and natural forest regeneration;
and developing carbon markets at production and local and international
product level. Our avoided deforestation program (which includes our
participation in the Coalition for Rainforest Nations) and a new tree planting
campaign, which will be also linked to Wangari Maathai's Billion Tree
Campaign, are part of our planned climate change actions. The relationship
of climate change to the country's competitiveness strategy is an important
part of our design. We are creating the conditions to induce responsible and
competitive behaviour.
The international business community -- as the Carbon Disclosure Project
companies recognise -- accepts that major economic, financial and
competitive climate change risks are associated with exposure to:
Competitive risks, from the shift in future consumers' from high intensity
carbon to low carbon or carbon neutral services and products.
Reputational risks, from consumers' perceiving inaction by companies.
Regulatory risks, from exposure to potential local and
international regulations.
Economic and financial risks, from impacts on assets and infrastructure
caused by extreme climate events.
Against these risks, there are also major opportunities associated with
innovation, consumers' perceptions, investors' preferences and rapid
technological change in existing sectors of the economy -- and with
developing new ones related to climate change issues.
Adaptation: Water resources, health, agriculture, infrastructure, coastal
areas, forest ecosystems and land and marine biodiversity are among the
key components of the adaptation strategy, as are risk management and
preparation for disasters.
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Education, culture and public awareness: The country wants its people
to be involved, engaged and committed in combating climate change, and
to build a societal system of decision making for implementing the strategy.
Individual habits, consumer preferences and patterns of consumption must
be made compatible with climate change imperatives.
We want informed citizens with the awareness and knowledge to enable
them to participate more actively and effectively in climate change issues.
This will, in turn, increase their capacity to influence the decision making
processes to take the action needed to make a difference.
Capacity building: If we are to implement a comprehensive national strategy,
we must build capabilities at all levels of society to respond to climate change,
to measure and mitigate its causes and to learn -- and communicate -- how
to adapt to its consequences.
Global governance and its mechanisms will be put to the test as they try to
solve one of the greatest challenges in the history of mankind: the ones which
allowed the current climate change crisis to develop must be revised. We will
not obtain different results doing the same things and relying on previous
ways. Developing new technologies to move to a low-carbon or carbon-
constrained economy -- and to stabilize carbon dioxide in the atmosphere
-- is a priority, one which must be integrated into the puzzle.
Some sort of agreement will be needed among different countries, especially
the major emitters. If the current stalemate is to be broken, countries must show
leadership in building a new international climate regime with the necessary
targets and time frames to take us into the future safely and intelligently.
Defining new and additional commitments and breaking the atmosphere of
suspicion between countries will ensure a true and global solution.
The post-2012 climate framework must consider the both the experiences
of the Kyoto Protocol and other new and complementary sector and
policy approaches. A wider framework is needed to reverse present
trends. Combining broad and specific commitments would encourage
developing countries better to integrate climate concerns into development
planning. This would allow policies to be tailored to national circumstances,
and at the same time give countries the international recognition that will
increase their competitiveness in attracting direct foreign investment.
Critical aspects of the Kyoto Protocol include the use of the `cap and trade'
approach of binding targets for Annex I parties, the flexible mechanisms
(emissions trading and joint implementation), and the Clean Development
Mechanism (CDM), which allows developing countries to create tradable
credits on a project-by-project basis. Continuing the CDM post 2012 is
critical for encouraging investments in a vital part of the market. But it only
allows credits for discrete projects, so different programmatic crediting
approaches are needed to achieve deeper and broader emissions reductions
in developing countries. So are stronger incentives and new mechanisms,
The scope of CDM investment should also be expanded to cover sectoral
and policy-based activitie -- setting emission reduction targets for sectors or
whole economies from estimated baselines approved by international
accredited bodies -- in such a way that a whole sector would become eligible
for trading allowances and certified emission reductions.
Thus action on climate change action is the responsibility of all countries,
not just major ones. Action must be consistent with the principle of common
but differentiated responsibilities. Costa Rica is pursuing a strategy which is
consistent with its local, regional and global ones.
agenda for action