Costa Rica
On September 21, 2023, the Strategic Committee for Youth Participation and Influence submitted a request for data to the Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE), related to the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) that summarizes the climate goals that the country assumed under the Paris Agreement.
After nearly three months without a response from the Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE), the young people decided to file an appeal for protection of constitutional rights with the Constitutional Chamber. The central issues are the environmental authority's refusal to provide information regarding Costa Rica's compliance with its obligations and responsibilities concerning climate change, specifically in relation to laws and international commitments stemming from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement.
Among the main arguments put forward by the young people is that the State violates the Right of access to public information on environmental matters by reserving what is related to the baseline -BAU- of the NDC, in addition to the lack of transparency regarding eight thematic areas: mobility and transport, development and territorial planning, energy, forests and terrestrial biodiversity, oceans and water resources, action for climate empowerment, finance and policies, and climate change strategies.
These are all issues addressed in the NDC that Costa Rica committed to implementing between 2021 and 2030. The request for information from young people was conceived as an oversight effort regarding compliance with these commitments at the international level.
Implementation
As a result of the Amparo ruling, the Ministry of Environment and Energy prepared a document with the requested information; however, this was considered by the plaintiff to be incomplete and lacking transparency in the information.
Therefore, the Strategic Committee expressed its dissatisfaction with the information provided due to the omission of crucial issues previously raised; after a detailed analysis of official documents, it was estimated that progress in the implementation of the NDCs is only 2%, failing to observe the Principle of Progressivity and the Right to Environmental Information established in the Escazú Agreement.
The Committee is currently evaluating the possibility of continuing the litigation to highlight this issue, since according to the Biennial Transparency Report (baseline document on transparency of environmental information in terms of the Paris Agreement) the three fundamental pillars on which it is based - mitigation, progress in the NDCs and adaptation - remain unfulfilled in the country.
Costa Rica has stated in its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) its commitment to promoting the well-being of all people and the country's natural environment. However, the legal action filed alleges the failure to provide information on the decarbonization plan and the adaptation and mitigation actions aligned with the global goal of limiting the increase in global average temperature to 1.5°C. Given this lack of transparency, this legal action is strengthened by the lack of knowledge regarding the content of the National Decarbonization Plan.
In the lawsuit, the organizations argued that the commitments derived from the Paris Agreement and the Escazú Agreement are being violated, and the link between climate change and human rights was highlighted.
- Strategic Committee for Youth Participation and Advocacy
- State of Costa Rica
- Ministry of Environment and Energy.
Costa Rica has a total area of 51,100 km² and is, after Belize and El Salvador, the smallest republic in Central America. It is located between Nicaragua and Panama. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Panama to the southeast. Its northern border is 300 km long, and its southern border is 365 km long, with Nicaragua.
The total length of the coastline is 1228 km. The Atlantic coast is a coastal region, narrow in the south and wider in the north, with marshes and lagoons that gradually give way to very humid forest. The coast extends for 212 km and is regular and flat.
The Pacific coast contrasts sharply with the Caribbean coast. Its shoreline is rocky and steep, interspersed with small sandy beaches and extensive mangrove forests. The coastline, including four peninsulas, stretches for 1,016 km. Although all of Costa Rica lies within the tropical region, it boasts a wide variety of climates, resulting in 12 distinct ecological zones or bioclimates.
The climate is generally tropical, hot, and humid, with abundant rainfall along the Caribbean coast and in the lowlands, and cooler temperatures in the mountainous regions. The average annual temperature ranges from 26°C on the Atlantic coast and 27.8°C on the Pacific coast, down to 4.5°C at the highest point of Cerro Chirripó.
With the exception of 25% of its protected territory, Costa Rica lacks a territorial plan to regulate its natural resources. Territorial planning is a state policy and a development planning tool from a holistic, forward-looking, democratic, and participatory perspective. It allows for the appropriate political and administrative organization and the spatial projection of society's social, economic, environmental, and cultural policies, guaranteeing an adequate standard of living for the population and the conservation of the environment for both current and future generations.
Therefore, the proper use of the territory must be guaranteed; failure to do so can produce serious imbalances in the region's hydrological cycle at the local, national, and regional levels. The lack of integrated management of land, water, and forests exacerbates the effects of climate change and increases social, economic, and environmental vulnerabilities resulting from resource degradation.
International agreements/treaties
- Paris Agreement
- Escazú Agreement
National laws
- Political Constitution of Costa Rica (Article 56).
- Law No. 7414 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UN).
- Law No. 9405 Paris Agreement.
- Decree Officializing the Decarbonization Plan Commitment of the Bicentennial Government No. 41581-MINAE.
- Organic Regulation of the Ministry of Environment and Energy No. 35669-MINAET.
- Costa Rica's Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) 2015 and its 2020 update.
Beginning
- Principle of prevention
- Progressivity and non-regression.
- Caution.
- In dubio pro natura.