Opinion: Costa Rica proves clean energy is not a myth

If there’s one country that proves to the rest of the world that clean energy is not a myth, but a reality, it’s Costa Rica. Tucked away in Central America… perhaps better known for its landscapes featured in the Jurassic franchise blockbusters, the country is making leaps and bounds in renewable energy, or RE use. So much so, that it only recently elected a president that announced, in his inaugural speech, that he was to move towards making the country carbon free. At 38 years of age, Carlos Alvarado Quezada is not only Costa Rica’s youngest president, he is also the country’s RE champion. He will only, however, be building on what has already been achieved in the Latin American nation.

Relative political stability and higher national revenues in comparison to the rest of the region is perhaps what has given it the drive and clarity to focus on greening its use of energy. Clean energy also came naturally to the country, since Costa Rica has the 4th highest rainfall in the world. Its array of volcanoes, waterfalls, mountains and valleys make up a geographical composition that facilitate clean energy. Hydropower is the leading form of renewable energy the country uses, but it also draws from geothermal and solar sources. That led it to achieve 100% clean energy production for 299 days in 2015. And from there, the small nation has only progressed. It achieved 99% green power production in 2017 for almost the entire year. Despite its relative economic inferiority to western countries, in particular RE pioneers such as Denmark and Germany, what Costa Rica achieved was heralded across the globe.

Many voices, however, at home and away, tried to downplay the nation’s success. And the reason was simple: carbon fuels were still being used to run all modes of transportation in Costa Rica. This somehow did not fit the rhetoric of what the country was trying to achieve.

What it costs to move to zero-carbon emission transportation is usually the prime argument of dissent. There are strong voices of cognition within the nation who have serious sit-downs with all stakeholders, including government. One of them is Costa Rica Limpia (Clean Costa Rica), which is a strong RE advocate. Its founder and TED speaker Monica Araya told WION the group is adamant the country’s precedence in the field is a solid foundation to process out the use of fossil fuels.

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The other reason behind the drive is Costa Rica’s ecotourism label. Fossil fuel just do not rhyme with green tourism, Araya adds: “Imagine, you have all these people coming to this country to look at our natural resources, our national parks, all these beautiful places. and they have to do all this ecotourism in gasoline cars, which makes no sense. so if we link the vision which he outlined in his winning speech, the economics eco-tourism and the fact that we’re becoming a service-oriented economy, it makes a lot of sense for us to electrify our transportation for economic reasons, for health reasons, for environmental reasons. the entry point today is to look at it as an opportunity for clean development, quality of life and branding of the country. and of course the practicalities of it will be difficult but it doesn’t mean it should not be done.”

In 2016, the government passed regulations to give incentives to zero emission transportation. Despite the vested interests and sometimes cloak-and-dagger opposition, the regulations were adopted and Costa Rica began took its first step towards carbon-free vehicles.

The only way is up, for the small Latin American nation. Costa Rica Limpia believes that the small population of 5 million people is adequate to incubate the model of clean energy production and fossil-fuel free transportation. The model will be replicated in countries wishing to emulate the Costa Rican success. Araya believes cities in India would be ideal for such replication: “We look forward to working with cities in India that are around 5 million people, so that we can find ways of collaborating and setting good precedents for the people and their health.”

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)