Costa Rica has made a pledge and is on track to become the world’s first carbon neutral country. 

Globally only six countries have even tried to make a commitment to become carbon neutral, and  Costa Rica’s target date of 2021 which also represents the 200 year anniversary for the country is by far the earliest target date.

A key aspect on the road to carbon neutrality and sustainability for Costa Rica is the ability to be able to measure Costa Rica’s current carbon footprint, and find ways to track the progress in carbon reduction. To meet this commitment it is necessary to measure emissions from both the public and private sectors for transportation, industry, energy production and other sources.

In order to measure the carbon footprints of the various industries it is important to have a certification body that tracks results.

On April 16th, 2013 Costa Rica chose Emeryville, California based SCS Global Services for carbon footprint verification and certification.

Globally Costa Rica is known as a world leader in placing natural capital at the center of development. Costa rica was rated as the “greenest and happiest” country in the world for by the New Economics Foundation, and is the only country considered a “BioGem” by the National Resource Council. Costa Rica is also the only tropical country to boast that over half of its territory (52%) to be covered in forests.

Sources:

http://www.scsglobalservices.com