The Costa Rican government has implemented plans to offset all of the country’s carbon dioxide emissions through budgeting, laws, and incentives. Measures include promoting biofuels, hybrid vehicles, and clean energy. Another key component of the national strategy is a “C-Neutral” label to certify that tourism and certain industrial practices mitigate all of the carbon dioxide they emit.
Under this certification system, tourists and businesses are charged a voluntary “tax” to offset their carbon emissions, with one ton of carbon valued at $10. The money is being used to fund conservation, reforestation, and research in protected areas. To augment the development of the C-Neutral program, the country is cultivating a carbon certificate market that aims not only to boost carbon capture and storage in the nation’s forests, but also help preserve their scenic beauty.
Carbon emissions trading credits are currently being bought and sold through the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS), on the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), and through private transactions. Participation in the privately run CCX market is strictly voluntary, and its offerings are much broader in scale and type than its large European counterpart. Investors are buying into this market for a variety of reasons, including increased profits from energy conservation savings, business opportunities in an emerging market, public relations, local mandates, and simple moral imperatives.
So far, the government has disbursed more than US$100 million to land owners who have become forest stewards. In Costa Rica, these lands are commonly called fincas de oxígeno (oxygen farms). With the favorable exchange rate between the US and Costa Rica, the time has never been better to invest in these lands – and to help save the environment while making a good profit.
