While countries like Costa Rica obviously have green-minded policy makers, it is unfortunate to learn that due to vested interests and economic goals, agreements like the recent Copenhagen summit proved to be somewhat of a failure in reaching a consensus among the world's nations.
There was an output created from the Copenhagen agreement, but it was only a three-page resolution that did not even have specific emission targets for each country. This is hardly worth the effort and expense associated with the gathering the world's leaders in one city. Some of the most modest expectations from the agreement were not even met, while most, if not all, of the signatures for the heads of states are left empty.
There were some initiatives set out by the text of the conference minutes, though. For one, it did recognize that efforts have to be made in order to cut down or offset carbon emissions. Costa Rica has known it for a very long while already. In fact, it's one of the world's key initiators of continuous planting of trees.
In the case of Costa Rica, government officials used a 3.5-percent fossil fuel tax in order to pay people in rural areas to plant trees there. This is a win-win situation for everyone because everyone has something to take from the project in the long term. Now forest restoration rates are high here, up 30 percent from 1990 levels.
As a result, the Ministry of the Environment, Energy and Telecommunications (MINAET) struck a deal in order to sell 3,000 tons of carbon credits for roughly $9 billion. This is not just good for the environment. It's good for the economy as well.
Efforts are also constant to promote recycling among residents and industries. Countless projects that promote efficiency, reduced pollution, and sustainability have been detailed. Surprisingly, a small country like Costa Rica, which is why we are left to wonder why the bigger boys can't even strike a deal. I hope someday they think about it, because it's a very big risk that they are trying to make.
