Costa Rica begins selling Carbon Credits to tourists
The government of Costa Rica now has a new source of income which will be derived from the worldwide effort in reduction of carbon footprints. Tourists arriving in Costa Rica will be offered the opportunity to offset their carbon footprint from their air travel. The passenger is given a standardized format for calculating the carbon expended from their flight and then they can purchase credits that will offset this. Hence, the idea of buying carbon credits is taken to a whole new level.
The program called Clean Development Mechanism claims its fame to the Kyoto Protocal where world leaders met to discuss and agree upon reduction in green house gases. The CDM bascially is set up for developed countries to buy their way out of pollution by purchasing carbon credits in developing countries. The theory stipulates that if money for ecological production investment is offered to developing countries, they would sieze the opportunity to build the infrastructure that emits less carbon footprints. Program leaders says that while the start up costs are higher for ecological mechanism, once created, it costs less to maintain and has dramtically less emissions of greenhouse gases.
The World Bank published a report called Development with Less Carbon: Latin American Response to the Climatic Change Challenge. In this report, Costa Rica is mentioned as one country that has demonstrated how to create financial value in environmental activities and preservation of endangered ecosystems.
This new source of income will be used to for the forestation and reforestation of parks within Costa Rica. Costa Rica also wants to become the first country in Central America to be carbon neutral by 2021. But many critics question the validity of the methods used to decide what constitutes an offest to a carbon footprint. The way the CDM is set up under the Kyoto Protocal, rich countries will be forced to transfer great sums of money to poor countries to offset their own emmissions. The Untied States would not agree to this type of extortion and many critics say that the CDM is smoke and mirrors because it does not address the underlying problems which is the burning of fossil fuels. Many experts feel the resources should be focused on alternative energy technology rather than justify pollution via carbon credits.
While the debate carries on, Costa Rica tourism industry knows the value of ecotourism and has been the leader of adopting clean and green policies. Many hotel companies such as DayStar Properites in Jaco are getting involved further by joining forces with local governments to help faciliate green policies and practices. Last year, DayStar which operates beachfront properties; La Paloma Blanca, Bahia Encantada, and Bahia Azul, brought two beach cleaning machines. These are the first type of machines in all of Costa Rica.
Roberto Dobles, Minister of MINAE, said that the industry’s that adopt ecological policies will benefit due to the public’s growing awareness of global warming. DayStar Properties in Jaco understands this relationship and has demonstrated this through its donation to the municipality and their in-house eco-policies of using non-toxic Housekeeping cleaners.
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