Paris 2015

Costa Rican diplomat Christiana Figueres Olsen said Monday that she was dropping her bid to succeed Ban Ki-moon as the United Nations Secretary-General due to the lack of support at the U.N. Security Council.

On Wednesday and Thursday, 51 countries filed their climate action plans with the United Nations, a key step toward reaching an international accord at the Paris climate summit in December. Altogether, more than 130 nations accounting for about 85 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions have filed plans.

Costa Rica, a tiny, biodiverse Central American country that is striving to achieve carbon-neutrality in the near future, has produced its fair share of ecology-minded thinkers and actors. Among them is 25-year-old journalist Diego Arguedas Ortiz.