Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Carbon Neutrality
Costa Rica has long had a reputation for being green, but, to paraphrase Kermit: it ain't
easy. Back in 2009, then-president Óscar Arias set an ambitious goal - that Costa Rica
achieve carbon neutrality by the year 2021. Meeting this goal would make Costa Rica the
first carbon-neutral country in the world and would coincide auspiciously with the coun-
try's bicentennial.
Although some measures have not yet been implemented as scheduled, the numbers
suggest that it's still possible to hit the 2021 target. The first phase - as yet incomplete -
addresses energy and agriculture, both major contributors to carbon-dioxide emissions.
Proposed changes for the energy sector, for example, include transitioning buses and taxis
to natural-gas, electric and hybrid vehicles, and imposing stricter emissions regulations on
these companies. Agricultural changes include government-sponsored training programs
for smaller farms, teaching them to implement organic methods such as composting, using
biochar and creating biodigester systems to trap methane gases and use them as onsite fuel.
For larger-scale agriculture, like the country's sprawling banana plantations, government
incentives encourage reforestation and conservation of existing rainforest in order to offset
carbon-dioxide emissions (most of which are generated from overseas shipping).
The progress made in the next few years will reveal whether Costa Rica's vision of car-
bon neutrality can coalesce into reality by 2021. In the meantime, one of the proposals an-
nounced by new president Luis Guillermo Solís during his electoral campaign is an exten-
sion of the carbon-neutrality goal to 2025.
Río San Juan Saga
Forming the eastern stretch of the border between Nicaragua and Costa Rica is the Río San
Juan, a silty river studded with small marshy islands and floating rafts of water lettuce.
This quiet waterway has been the source of much discord between the two countries, to the
extent that the International Court of Justice in The Hague has had to preside over several
legal disputes in the last 20 years as both countries attempt to lay claim to territory.
The border area is complicated, not only because the river flows from Lago de Ni-
caragua to the Caribbean Sea and as such, is an evolving geographical entity. The 1858
Cañas-Jerez Treaty asserts that Nicaragua owns the Río San Juan but that Costa Rica re-
tains navigation rights on its side of the river. Though spats have arisen over the years,
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