"Costa Rica opposition group says to scrap 2021 carbon neutrality target," reads the headline of a recent Reuters news article. Standing on its own, the headline is accurate. However, lacking context, it could be misleading, causing readers who don’t venture beyond the headline to conclude that Costa Rica will be dropping its goal of achieving carbon neutrality completely.
"Costa Rica opposition group says to scrap 2021 carbon neutrality target," reads the headline of a recent Reuters news article. Standing on its own, the headline is accurate. However, lacking context, it could be misleading, causing readers who don’t venture beyond the headline to conclude that Costa Rica will be dropping its goal of achieving carbon neutrality completely.
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Reading further, Reuters reporter Marcelo Teixeira makes it clear that while Costa Rica’s "leftist" opposition PAC (Citizens’ Action Party) party, whose candidate Luis Guillermo Solis appears to be a shoo-in to win the presidency in an April 6 runoff election, believes the 2021 goal of achieving carbon neutrality is too optimistic, it doesn't intend to drop the carbon neutrality goal or other climate change mitigation and adaptation policies.
To the contrary, PAC doesn't intend to drop Costa Rica’s carbon neutrality goal; the party believes the Central American country just needs more time to achieve it. Already a world leader when it comes to low carbon emissions and the use of renewable energy, further gains are harder to come by, particularly when it comes to transportation and diversifying its renewable energy base.
Achieving national carbon neutrality
Costa Rica is already one of the world’s low-carbon and renewable energy leaders, as well as being at the forefront of nations when it comes to ecosystems and biodiversity conservation and sustainable development. The first is thanks in large part to an abundance of hydro and geothermal power, Costa Rica’s leaders appear steadfast in their commitment to broaden and diversify the country’s clean, renewable energy base and to become the world’s first completely carbon-neutral society.
Read more from our affiliate, TriplePundit.
Costa Rica image via Shutterstock.
