Costa Rica to host PreCOP 25 in October

The Costa Rican government hopes to continue to establish itself as a global climate leader when the country hosts PreCOP25, an international meeting preceding the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP25), in October.

PreCOP25 will be held Oct. 8-10 at the National Convention Center. COP25 will be held in December in Chile.

The meetings will “promote the work that Chile and Costa Rica have done for decarbonization, and to consolidate Latin American leadership in the global agenda of Climate Change,” according to Casa Presidencial.

“Costa Rica is convinced that the PreCOP should be part of the global climate milestones of 2019 to assist in the achievement of positive results at COP25 and, above all, to increase the ambition of climate action, allowing us to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement agreed in 2015 and respond to the greatest challenge facing humanity,” President Carlos Alvarado said in a statement.

The Costa Rican government is urging COP25 participants to “strengthen actions and solutions,” particularly relating to ongoing discussions about carbon market mechanisms.

“Costa Rica’s intention with the PreCOP is to concentrate on promoting conversations on climate actions and not only on political negotiations, as is traditionally the case in the PreCOPs,” said Carlos Manuel Rodríguez, Minister of the Environment and Energy. “The idea is to innovate and have a non-conventional PreCOP.”

Costa Rica and Chile became PreCOP and COP25 hosts, respectively, after Brazil withdrew from the role in November 2018.