Climate Change
One British government objective on which this Embassy makes a big effort is the fight against climate change.
Central America is one of the most vulnerable regions in the world to climate change. It already suffers flooding, landslides and hurricanes each year but the frequency and strength of these is set to get worse with changing climate. The region is also blessed with a huge amount of the world’s biodiversity and all of this will suffer as the global climate warms. Costa Rica is acutely aware of climate change and what it will do unless there is coordinated global action. Costa Rican experts have played key roles in the formulation of international environmental policy for two decades and there is a tremendous amount of expertise in the country. The country is determined to play an activist role in the build-up to the important Copenhagen meeting at the end of this year when the successor to the Kyoto Protocol should be agreed.
Our Embassy is determined to help the Costa Ricans in their activism. We have supported the government's Peace with Nature programme since its inception three years ago: it aims at transforming the environmental behaviour of the public sector in Costa Rica and inspiring similar actions by governments internationally. We have funded the creation of a specialist climate change centre at Costa Rica's National Biodiversity Institute (INBIO). We have supported NGOs working to spread the message about climate change in schools and the media. And to give ourselves credibility in this work we decided to become carbon neutral ourselves. So for the past two years we have worked incredibly hard to decrease our energy and resource consumption, to recycle whatever we can, to offset all our air travel and finally, to compensate for our remaining carbon footprint through a tree-planting programme.
Climate Change Projects
Reducing our Carbon Footprint
Where can I get more information on climate change?
Road to Copenhagen
Twitter for trees
United Nations Environment Programme will plant one tree for every follower on Twitter. Tweet Pls RT #t4t
