The Climate Change Crisis Viewed From a Costa Rican Perspective &#8902

In The Costa Rica News ( TCRN ), we have been constantly making known everything that happens in Costa Rica from a positive perspective, like for example in the field ofbiodiversity , national parks, and the struggles against human actions that damage our environment. In this article, we are going to ponder what today is positive for some and others worrisome, the debates about climate change.

From October 8th to 10th, our country was for the first time host of the 'PreCOP25', which was part of the preparatory meetings for the 25th Conference of the United Nations Framework Convention Climate Change(COP25-UNFCCC), to be held in Santiago, Chile this December.

A
total of 1,500 people were present, delegates representing more than 90
countries and more than 60 panels with 264 panelists on topics from blue carbon
to electric mobility. More than 25 ministers arrived at this PreCOP (when no
such meeting had succeeded in attracting other ministers beyond the organizing
country). Among them Ministers and other delegations from Spain, Finland,
Germany, European Union, Singapore, South Africa and Chile, Ministers of
environment and agriculture of Central America, Indigenous communities and
youth groups.

Various
organizers stressed that the goals of "Nationally Determined
Contributions" (NDCs) in each country should be increased. They recalled
that the fundamental three axes of the conference: nature-based solutions,
sustainable cities, and the blue economy.

Regarding
the blue economy, the conference covered issues such as coral reef restoration,
ocean science production and coastal communities in the face of the climate
crisis. A panel of experts stressed that it is possible to achieve 30% of the
planet's surface protected by 2030 through this strategy, with actions such as
reforestation and ocean management. Natural areas conservation and restoration,
which has remained in the background in the fight against climate change, maybe
part of the response to protect the earth's resources and provide a path to
sustainability and food security.

It should be noted that the 86 participating countries in COP25-UNFCCC have not yet reached any specific agreement or issued any official joint document. The meeting in Santiago (Chile) will be the last annual meeting between countries before the implementation of the Paris Agreement in 2020.

Some contradictions must be clarified.

Beyond what President Carlos Alvarado has
emphasized, on what he considers a challenge concerning what was stated in the
PreCOP25, "What some today call impossible, we will make it possible. It's
time for exceptional actions and that's what we're here for", he said.

Ecologists and human rights activists concentrated before the PreCOP25 at the Convention Center in Belén, demanding that the Alvarado Government leave its double speech and take the necessary measures to address the greatecological problemsthat arise in the country, as well as putting an end to his (the President's) supposed complicity with extractive mining companies and their destructive practices.

Debates on the fight against the climate crisis and decarbonization in Costa Rica .

On September 27th, the press conference
called "Results of the global action for the climate crisis in Costa
Rica', was held at the Ecumenical Research Department (DEI), Sabanilla (Costa
Rica). The activity was attended by various social organizations, politicians
and community representatives like: 'Fridays For the Future Costa Rica', 'Coeco
Ceiba Friends of the Earth Costa Rica', 'National Front of Sectors Affected by
the Piñera Production', 'Las Rojas', 'The Talamanca Movement Life and For the
Earth', and of course, 'The Costa Rican Federation for the Conservation of the
Environment' (Fecon). The debates took place during the 'Global Actions against
the Climate Crisis', where the organizations of our Central American country
offered their balance about the negotiations at the Climate Summit in New York.

Regarding the results of the 'Week of
Global Action Against the Climate Crisis in Costa Rica', the President of the
Ecological Federation (Fecon), Henry Picado, highlighted the need to bring the
issue to a national discussion as well, "above all because many
contradictions have been generated', 'for us as a network of organizations that
have been working within the country for more than 30 years, it is very
significant".

Gabriel
Rivas (Biologist) belonging to the "Coecoceiba, Friends of the Earth"
and "Fecon", in his speech recalled that the fight for climate
justice and decarbonization did not start today, the fight in Costa Rica began
in Talamanca with the women indigenous people who opposed oil exploitation in
the mid-70s thru the early 80s. "It must be the main premise in our fight
against climate change and decarbonization, the provision by the law of banning
further oil exploration and exploitation. In 2000, Costa Rica was able to issue
a moratorium on oil exploration, these thanks to the struggle of popular
organizations ".

The Biologist Rivas, emphasized that if we
want to fight against climate change, we must be radical, that is, go to the
root of the problem.

More actions.

Various ecological organizations in Costa Rica
signed a document, which highlights that agroecology is the most successful
path to fight the climate crisis. They talk about agriculture based on
indigenous and peasant knowledge that has fed the world for centuries without
damage to the environment and that should be at the center of climate
discussions and solutions. They emphasized varying figures, reflecting, that
looking towards agriculture in times of climate crisis it is very important.

Agroecology is known as the study of
ecological processes applied to agricultural production systems. Through it,
ecological principles are applied when evaluating agro-ecosystems. The term is
often used inaccurately to refer to "a science, a movement, or a
practice."

Parallel to the PreCOP25, environmental organizations
held a debate in San José called "Building Climate Justice and Energy
Transition from an Environmentalism Perspective". In the activity, various
topics were discussed, among them: "From the oil era to the post-oil
era". "Ambitions and hypocrisies" by Gabriel Rivas.
"Coecoceiba, Energy matrix in Costa Rica: steps for a fair energy
transition" by Osvaldo Durán. 
"Proal, Readings from Environmentalism to the National
Decarbonization Plan". And "The good, the bad and the ugly, proposals
of the communities in the face of the climate crisis" by Mariana Porras
(FECON).

Henry
Picado, President of FECON, said that the activity was parallel to the
PreCOP25, due to contradictory internal provisions of the Climate Change
organization decisions. "They canceled an activity where we were going to participate;
this is a signal that they are not open to debate ".

Young people have to understand.

The former executive secretary of the
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Christiana Figueres Olsen,
made a call in the PreCOP25 to young people: "they (the young) have great
power that is not being used, I invite the youth to use it". Figueres is
recognized for achieving the unthinkable: those 175 countries commit to
maintaining the global temperature of the planet below 2 °C concerning the
pre-industrial era. She is an anthropologist and economist.

Figueres expressed, 'we have to understand
that healing the environment is our best guarantee of a prosperous future and
that the seventy governments that are committed to climate change mitigation
actions represent only 10% of the world's emissions, actions must be taken to
incorporate more nations to this agreement'.

Figueres helped launch the decarbonization plan, about
it she says: 'more than  decarbonization
it is a plan to modernize the economy of Costa Rica, it is a very ambitious
plan that was written and viewed from the perspective of where we need to be in
the future, now the big responsibility is how are we going to execute it and
the steps there are not clear yet, what we do know is where we have to go '.

At TCRN we agree with Christiana Figueres, that everyone has to realize, that the environment is not separate from us as humans, we depend on a healthy and stable environment. There is an interrelation between human beings and the environment that is endearing and indivisible.

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