Carbon Neutral by 2021: The Past and Present of Costa Rica’s Unusual Political Tradition

Flagg, Julia A.

doi:10.3390/su10020296

Cited by 20 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…The pledge announcement was an opportunity to highlight that Costa Rica was, once again, leading the way on important social and environmental issues, this time with climate mitigation (Flagg, 2018). A top government official from the Arias administration explained that the adoption of the carbon neutral pledge did not require the approval of the unicameral legislative assembly in Costa Rica because the pledge is a policy, not a law (G4).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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2019

HER

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In this exploratory work, we investigate the relationship between the role identity "farmer" and farmers' land management practices using data from 30 semistructured interviews with farmers in southeastern Idaho. Guided by social identity principles, we examine how farmers' collective identity influences environmental attitudes and behaviors. Overall, we find that most farmers have implemented some conservation practices on their land, particularly those related to soil and water, and see themselves and other farmers as good environmental stewards. However, we also find that many of their chosen conservation practices required little to no sacrifice, and in addition to benefiting the environment, were also cost-minimizing business decisions. We find that as a group, these farmers' beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors are largely focused on productive efficiency. We argue that this focus often puts them in competition with other social groups, which ultimately reinforces group saliency and adversely affects relations between farmers and other groups seeking to influence farming practices.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Untitled

2019

HER

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“…The role of Bhutan's GNH screening tool, which to date had been dealing with new policy issues one at a time, could be used to examine a macro-comparison between these two crucial activities and policies. With regard to emissions from international travel (including tourism), these are usually excluded from national GHG inventories (IPCC, 2006), though Flagg (2018) raised concerns about this issue for Costa Rica. In Bhutan, emissions from jet fuels used in aviation are included under the transport sector (NEC, 2011), though not disaggregated into tourist and non-tourist shares due to data paucity.…”

Section: Conflict With Ecotourismmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These are unique internal determinants which, when complemented by the two resource advantages, make up a formidable combination for Bhutan to pursue and sustain carbon neutrality into the future. The case of Costa Rica is a close comparison (see Flagg (2018) for details).…”

Section: Solutions To Assist With Upholding Carbon Neutrality Into Thmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Nishioka (2016) argues that in-depth case studies of nations who are able to demonstrate significant reductions have great potential to influence and assist other countries in their transition. Flagg (2018) also highlights the importance and possible role single nation case studies have in helping to better understand contemporary climate change discourse and policy. Given that the nations that have pledged for carbon neutrality are diverse in terms of development stage and country size, these could provide useful lessons for a range of other countries.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Carbon neutral policy in action: the case of Bhutan

2018

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Climate policy across the world is proceeding at a highly variable pace, with some places very committed to decarbonizing their economies and others just beginning. Emerging nations are generally just starting along this journey. However, among the few nation states that have pledged to achieve carbon neutrality, is Bhutan, a least developed country. Carbon neutrality is an ambitious climate policy that is increasingly being recognized as necessary in order to stabilise global temperature rise at 1.5°C. However, Bhutan is likely to face significant challenges in maintaining this status as the country balances its desire to grow in economic opportunities (GDP) and in human happiness (GNH). Little research has been conducted inside the policy processes to better understand how Bhutan will maintain carbon neutrality. Through open-ended, semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders, this study provides an inside view on the current situation and future challenges that Bhutan may face, along with the complexities associated with implementing and maintaining an ambitious carbon neutral policy. The paper highlights Bhutan's story and how it could be useful for policy learning and knowledge sharing, especially in the context of emerging nations' climate governance. Key policy insights  The pro-environmental Constitution of Bhutan and its Gross National Happiness (GNH) strategy provide a unique institutional set up that enables ambitious climate policy innovation.  Bhutan's forests and hydropower provide resource advantages that support a carbon neutral pledge.  Bhutan's carbon neutral commitment could be tested and challenged by rural-urban migration.  Complacency towards future challenges in upholding carbon neutrality is apparent and could prevent the aggressive policy intervention that may be required.  Varying viewpoints are emerging that could hinder the formulation of appropriate policy measures.

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“…The CN Program was introduced in Costa Rica in 2012 as a policy instrument in accordance with the government strategy to have a zero-carbon economy in 2050 [22,26,32]. The program began with the participation of two companies and currently involves around 84 organizations [29].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Becoming Carbon Neutral in Costa Rica to Be More Sustainable: An AHP Approach

André

Valenciano-Salazar

2020

Sustainability

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We propose addressing an organization’s adoption of an environmental certification as a multicriteria problem considering environmental sustainability as well as economic and strategic aspects. Our methodological approach uses the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), which we use in an empirical application to analyze the adoption decision of several Costa Rican firms and institutions. Firstly, we select a set of economic, strategic, and environmental criteria that seem relevant for the organization’s direction. We select these criteria according to our literature review and a series of face-to-face interviews with scholars and companies’ managers. As an environmental certification, we focus on Carbon Neutral (CN), which is a domestic certification aimed at reducing or offsetting carbon emissions. For the sake of comparison, we also consider ISO 14001, which is a well-known international standard aimed at compliance with environmental norms. We conduct the AHP analysis using the answers given by 24 companies and institutions, which in aggregate terms, give CN a higher score than ISO 14001. This result is mainly due to the fact that CN ranks above ISO 14001 when attending to environmental sustainability, although ISO 14001 tends to be preferred in economic and strategic terms.

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Carbon Neutral by 2021: The Past and Present of Costa Rica’s Unusual Political Tradition

Cited by 20 publications

References 35 publications

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Carbon neutral policy in action: the case of Bhutan

Becoming Carbon Neutral in Costa Rica to Be More Sustainable: An AHP Approach

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