In 2019 Costa Rica will host the 6th World Forum of Low Emissions Cities. After successful editions in Medellín (2016), Tabasco (2017) and Paris (2018) the event arrives to our capital city, San José. For us from the Center for Urban Sustainability (CPSU) it is an honor to be the hosts and organizers of this edition, working together with allies such as Low Carbon City and the Climate Change Directorate of Costa Rica.
Costa Rica, might be small a country, but it recognized internationally for its forward thinking politics and politics and policies in climate action and decarbonisation, thus an ideal host for this event. In its territory of 52100 Km2, in just a few hours you can go from the central valley, in which you can hardly separate the main cities, to the Caribbean coast full of lush tropical forests alongside crystal-clear beaches, or even to the pacific coast with its infinite and unique beaches of multicolored sands. Parallel to this natural beauty, Costa Rica’s environmental vulnerability becomes apparent in the severe droughts along the pacific coast, the erosion of the soil of the Cahuita National Park caused by rising sea levels and the frequent flooding affecting those urban areas that host 70% of the population. A population heavily involved in organizing to tackle these challenges, making up for years of inadequate urban planning.
Our just recently published decarbonisation plan defines a clear goal of 0 net emissions by 2050. In order to reach this goal, it establishes compromises which, according to the Climate Action Tracker, comply with a global scenario in which the planet does not reach a 2°C temperature increase. These compromises and actions make Costa Rica one of the few countries which are classified as “compatible” whilst the majority are still graded “insufficient” or “extremely insufficient”. Though our ambitions are large,the global context and the urgency of tangible climate actions remind us everyday that even the most ambitious plans might not be sufficient in order to successfully achieve the changes necessary to really fight climate change.
Even though our contribution to climate change is rather small in scale and intensity of emissions, Costa Rica has set the goal to be a global role model showing that a decarbonised development is not only possible, but also necessary for the future economic and social development of every single country. As in most other countries, a large majority of the Costa Rica’s emissions stem from urban areas (transport and waste, in our case). So as to go further than the conservation model, and truly become an of example of decarbonisation for the rest of the world, we have to achieve decarbonisation in our urban environments.
Costa Rica’s unique path on environmental issues has one crucial advantage over other countries: the country can count on a population that is proud of its achievements on environmental policies. This becomes and opportunity when opening up the conversation around the climate, which shouldn’t be a conversation that remains exclusively in the hands of experts or policy makers. The assesment of the situation, be it, alarmist and apocalyptic, full of opportunities and optimism, or a balance of both should be taken by a well-informed, sensible and well-informed citizenship, that appropriates climate issues in their everyday lives.
All those realities, goals and ambitions guided us in defining the main topics of this year’s 4th World Low Carbon City Forum: “Cities as spaces of opportunities for climate action” and “Communication and pedagogy: talking, communicating and teaching climate change.” Based on those two thematic areas, we are not only going to design the contents of the forum, but also, we will organize previous activities and interventions which will prepare and enrich the conversations and results of the forum.
We invite you to follow our social networks, where we will soon be announcing the exciting program, contents and activities that you will discover in the forum. We hope you can join us in this edition to jointly accelerate the Road to decarbonisation.
