Costa Rican President Carlos Alvarado met with world leaders and diplomats Tuesday during the United Nations General Assembly in New York City to discuss the Central American country’s ongoing commitment to combating climate change.
The president also announced the formation of a global coalition that hopes to protect 30% of the planet by 2030, which will be formally unveiled at PreCop25 in San José on Oct. 8-10
President Alvarado gave presentations attended by multiple heads of state in seven forums about the actions Costa Rica is taking to transform its economy in the midst of climate change. During his opening speech for Climate Week NYC, an annual event, he said that this type of transformation is one of the hardest tasks a country can accomplish.
“Costa Rica is a small country in territory but big in commitment to the environmental future of the planet,” Alvarado said in his speech Monday.
“Actions and not speeches are what our country contributes to this global process to face the ravages that climate change represents,” he added, and listed various measures Costa Rica has applied including the National Decarbonization Plan, which aims to transform the economy into one that is more green and sustainable.
Alvarado said the promotion of public-private partnerships is one of the best ways to help face the challenge of reshaping a country’s economy to become carbon neutral.
Costa Rica’s efforts in fighting forest fires with a nature-based solution was another talking point for Alvarado as he highlighted the tactic as a successful method for the prevention and containment of wildfires.
“Costa Rica’s experience in the topic of forest fire prevention has drawn attention,” Alvarado said.
“This is what is called a nature-based solution,” he continued while referring to a NASA map of forest fires between Mexico and Panama, which highlighted Costa Rica because of its low forest fire incidence level.
Alvarado was also present in a panel with the heads of state or governments of Germany, France, Chile, Italy and Finland. Discussions focused on the actions that must be implemented immediately for the fulfillment of the 2015 Paris Agreements.
