A green and pacifist democracy
Former Spanish colony, Costa Rica became independent in 1821. After a tragic episode of civil wars in 1948, the army was abolished the following year: a world first. Today, in case of geopolitical conflict, the country goes through the Hague Tribunal, the International Court of Arbitration, or solicits other countries to establish a diplomatic solution. Costa Rica's long process of democratization, which began at independence, took shape when Óscar Arias Sánchez, a farmer and philosopher who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987, came to power. "Peace is a never-ending process [...]. It is an attitude, a way of life [...]. It cannot be imposed on the weakest nation or implemented by the strongest power. Costa Rica has a half-century-old pacifist tradition and, before the vast majority of countries, granted full citizenship to women, blacks and Amerindians. The country has managed to significantly reduce poverty and has some of the best social indicators in its region. All of these revolutionary decisions have made Costa Rica a utopian destination for a number of idealists, some of whom have gone on to pioneer new struggles. Nicknamed the "Switzerland of Central America", the country has escaped the deep political tribulations of its neighbors, Panama, Nicaragua and El Salvador, and has been the land of welcome for many refugees fleeing political persecution. In 2021, more than 108,000 asylum applications were filed by refugees, according to the United Nations High Commission.
The economic context
The country's economy, which is now very dependent on tourism (8% of national GDP in 2019), has long been based on large-scale agricultural exports. Costa Rica used to function mainly thanks to the export of coffee, the basis of the country's economy, cocoa and bananas. As one of the largest pineapple producers in the world, Costa Rica is often accused of excessive use of fertilizers and pesticides: a paradoxical situation for a country that claims to be a pioneer in the environmental cause. But pineapple production is a pillar of the economy: Costa Rica alone supplies more than 80% of the European market and its market share on the continent would have reached 89% in 2018. On the other hand, the pineapple monoculture causes more and more social consequences: families are victims of health problems, water has become undrinkable and working conditions are considered to be on the verge of overexploitation, NGOs alert the authorities, but this remains without follow-up. However, this sector has recently begun to suffer from competition and the arrival of new producers.
Since August 2022, a semiconductor assembly and testing plant (an investment estimated at $600 million) aims to produce 20% of the country's exports. Its economy has also turned to a niche industry: medical devices and textiles, with most exports going to North America.
With a GDP of $64 billion in 2021, Costa Rica became a member of the OECD in May 2021 and is now supported by the international financial community. Also in 2021, the UNDP Human Development Index ranks Costa Rica 68th in the world. In a country where the GDP per capita is higher than in China or Brazil, Costa Rica's standard of living does not seem to be in any particular difficulty. However, despite some progress, some inequalities persist: a social economic crisis, amplified by the Covid-19 crisis, has affected the country in recent years. In 2021, the percentage of people living below the poverty line was 23%.
Priority to renewable energy
Renewable energies, reforestation, protected natural areas: Costa Rica has a pioneering policy that makes economic use of its ecological resources. Sustainable development is therefore an integral part of the country's DNA and the entire political class admits the reality of climate change. Unique in the world, Costa Rica's Green Tribunal, a court of justice for the environment, is responsible for stopping projects suspected of not respecting the environment. In 2019, the country released its 2018-2050 National Decarbonization Plan, detailing how it would become a net-zero emissions economy by 2050. Aiming for the title of the first carbon-neutral country, by reducing or offsetting carbon emissions, Costa Rica has thus instituted a payment for environmental services system, financed in part by a tax levied on fossil fuel consumption. Already, Costa Rica has been producing 100% of its electricity since 2015, and has successfully leveraged its geographic potential. A large share of the country's electricity production is already derived from renewable energy sources - primarily hydroelectric, but also wind, solar and geothermal. The acceleration of renewable energy production is made possible by the country's many resources. First of all, water, the main source of energy available in the country, has allowed the deployment of some 20 hydroelectric power plants. However, the project for the largest electric dam in Central America, El Diquis, was finally abandoned by the Costa Rican state in November 2018. The country also benefits from geothermal energy, the transformation of underground heat into energy, with five geothermal power plants. These make it possible to no longer be dependent on rainfall and to produce electricity continuously with lower operating costs than other energy sources. The country also converts waste into energy by combustion through the biomass system. Finally, as early as 2011, René Castro, the Minister of Environment and Energy at the time, signed a moratorium banning the exploitation of oil for a period of three years, confirmed by the new presidency at the 2014 climate conference in New York. If this "decarbonization" strategy succeeds, Costa Rica can provide a roadmap for other countries, especially developing ones, by showing how democratically elected leaders can foster economic growth by moving away from polluting energy sources. This small country of a thousand resources is a true global model, but several setbacks seem to be holding back these ambitions: first, measuring environmental performance is complex (an action may be beneficial in one respect, while being negative in another); second, the long-term plans and projects set by the various governments are sometimes compromised by new political and economic strategies.
Future political issues
The country combines tax advantages, political stability and a high standard of living more than other Central American countries. The period from 2018 to 2022, under the presidency of Carlos Alvarado, has been particularly significant in terms of environmental protection: Costa Rica has made exemplary decisions regarding resource exploitation. Former President Alvarado's vision reconciled ecology and economy while prioritizing the reduction of the carbon footprint and the end of the use of fossil fuels. The young president, an avowed environmentalist, had a decarbonization plan and aimed for zero net emissions by 2050. To achieve this goal, the plan included reforms on transportation, real estate, energy management, waste management, the complete disappearance of plastic and a total renunciation of oil. In 2019, Costa Rica even received the "Champions of the Earth" award from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the UN's highest environmental honor. Two years later, the sustainable energy organization REN21 considered Costa Rica a pioneer in renewable energy production on the planet in its report published in 2021. The arrival in power of the new president, Rodrigo Chaves Robles, in the spring of 2022, has completely changed the situation and the country is now in danger of falling into inaction on its ecological resolutions. Rodrigo Chaves Robles, a conservative and former World Bank executive, does not seem to want to make green policy a priority. A proven economist and former finance minister, the new president is turning his back on decades of environmental protection policies and has said he wants to focus more on reducing the country's public debt (70 per cent of gdP by 2022), unemployment rate (14 per cent) and poverty rate (23 per cent). His convictions led him to refuse to sign the Escazú agreement, the first agreement in the world to introduce specific provisions to protect the rights of environmental defenders and the first environmental treaty in Latin America. What's the kicker? This unprecedented initiative was initiated by Costa Rica itself. This refusal of Rodrigo Chaves Robles is therefore a disillusionment for many Costa Ricans who are now apprehensive about the next projects of their president. By considering going back on the decisions of his predecessors in order to exploit once again the mineral wealth, gas and oil to promote the growth of the country, Rodrigo Chaves Robles is already nicknamed "the anti-ecological president". Threatened with leaving the "essence" of its current economic model, Costa Rica is afraid of losing sight of its ecological marker, already well established in civil society.
