The National Decarbonization Plan is a response to the request of the President of the Republic
of Costa Rica, Mr. Carlos Alvarado Quesada, to prepare a strategic document that would offer a
Roadmap with key actions to consolidate the process towards the decarbonization of the Costa
Rican economy.
This Plan summarizes the strategic actions that the Bicentennial
Government has identified to implement the decarbonization of the
Costa Rican economy. Decarbonization and resilience are recognized
as the means to transform the current economic development model
into one that is based on bioeconomy, green growth, inclusion, and
on enhancing the well-being of all citizens.
The definition of the key actions was carried out based on the
paradigm of transformational change - in contrast to the logic of
incremental change - which is required to eradicate the use of fossil
fuels in our economy. To bring the concept of decarbonization into
practice, the implemented methodology is anchored in a long-term
vision of Costa Rica.
Costa Rica aims for a decarbonized economy with net-zero emissions
in 2050, in a manner consistent with the long-term goal of limiting
the increase of average global temperature to 1.5°C above preindustrial levels. According to the best available science, the adoption of this objective has clear consequences, and a zero-emissions global economy must be reached by mid-century. As such, this would require
an advanced level of implementation in order to effectively achieve
the main transformational processes by 2050.
A "backcasting" approach was applied based on this long-term goal,
taking national circumstances into account to identify public policy
and action packages that must begin implementation immediately
to reach the 2050 target. The actions are divided into three major
stages: a) foundations stage (2018-2022), b) inflection stage (2023-
2030) and c) transformation normalization stage or massive
deployment (2031-2050).