Costa Rica

In 2007, Costa Rica committed to the voluntary and aspirational goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2021. In For this purpose, climate policy was integrated into the National Development Plan (NDP), and a National Climate Change Strategy (2009) and its Action Plan (2013) were issued. Also, in 2009, the carbon neutrality goal was reiterated as part of the country's commitments to the Copenhagen Accord and in its second national communication to the UNFCCC. As of 2019, the Government of Costa Rica defines through its National Decarbonisation Plan that its goal is to be a net zero emissions economy by 2050 and for this purpose, it establishes actions in three major stages: a) initial stage (2018-2022), b) inflection stage (2023-2030) and c) stage of normalisation of change or massive deployment (2031-2050) through 10 decarbonisation axes and 8 cross-cutting strategies. 

Costa Rica reaffirms this commitment through its updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) in 2020, increasing the country's ambition and committing to take actions aligned with the Paris Agreement temperature goal. Costa Rica has set out to demonstrate fair, adaptive and resilient decarbonisation, committing to an absolute maximum of net emissions in 2030 of 9.11 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e) including all emissions and all sectors covered by the National Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory. Costa Rica is also committed to strengthening the country's social, economic, and environmental resilience to the effects of climate change through capacity building and information for decision-making, the inclusion of adaptation criteria in financing and planning instruments, the adaptation of public services, productive systems, and infrastructure, and the implementation of nature-based solutions.

With the update of the NDC, headline adaptation and mitigation targets are established through 13 areas of action: mobility and transportation; development and land use planning; energy; infrastructure and construction; industry, commerce and services; integrated waste management; agriculture; forests and terrestrial biodiversity; oceans, water resources and blue biodiversity; action for climate empowerment; transparency and continuous improvement; finance; and climate change finance, strategies and plans.