The Municipality of Heredia (Costa Rica) launches its recently published Climate Change Policy. It is a roadmap for carrying out public policies to curb the effects and causes of climate change. Following some strategic pillars and some lines of action, it is intended to cover all the economic and social sectors of the canton, both in its rural and urban areas, in order to join efforts in a much-needed fight.
Heredia has approximately 35,000 inhabitants and is located 10km from the Costa Rican capital. It is a canton with fully urban districts and other rural or semi-rural ones. It is the capital of the province that bears his name and is considered the city of flowers and the coffee capital of the Central American country.
This policy is part of Costa Rica’s unprecedented global commitment to become a carbon neutral country by 2021. The Costa Rican country has recovered huge areas of deforested space in new forests, has strengthened itself as the main ecotourism destination and collects < a href="https://unhabitatmejor.leroymerlin.es/costa-rica-renewable-energy">environmental successes such as that of 2018 when it managed to generate 98% of its energy from renewable sources and use for 300 days electricity only from 100% clean production.
A member of NAIDER participated in the formulation and drafting of this policy during his stay at CINPE, International Center for Economic Policy for Sustainable Development of the National University of Costa Rica (UNA). It is a strategic policy, but with lines of action that are specified in actions that are endowed with budget items. It is therefore a useful instrument for councilors that allows them to test themselves and check the progress made in the matter. The climate emergency in which we are invested has already been identified by the most relevant community agents consulted during the development of the policy. Both the testimonies and the evidence of the change make this policy more necessary than ever, both in Heredia and in other parts of Costa Rica and the world.
Wouldn’t it be interesting if certain municipalities around us have the same tool? if not all, at least the most populated should have a similar policy that guides our politicians in the fight against climate change.