Last week, the hotel Westin Playa Conchal announced that it became the first Latin American hotel, spa & golf to become carbon positive.
In other words, it offsets more of the emissions it produces (25% more, according to the study it conducted).
The process to achieve carbon neutrality recognition (or in this case to go beyond) is based on a concept calledcarbon footprint measurement . This procedure takes the total greenhouse gases produced by an organisation (in this case, the hotel) and subtracts from it the reduction of the gases produced and the offsetting of those that could not be reduced through various actions.
An important detail: the official certification issued by the Climate Change Directorate recognises only whether organisations are "carbon neutral". When a company like the Westin announces that it is carbon positive, there is no special certification for this.
Why does it matter what a hotel in Guanacaste does? Because by reducing the release of greenhouse gases, however small, it helps to curb global warming and contribute to those who seek to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Paris Agreements to those who seek to reduce emissions of these gases.
By managing to offset its emissions, the Westin joins the 67 companies that have the Carbon Neutral Country Brand recognition as of 19 July 2016, according to the Ministry of Environment and Energy. What was the process?
Let's look at the hotel's numbers: The Westin started in 2014 with the first measurement of the hotel's carbon footprint. carbon footprint based on international protocols, as explained by the Environmental Manager of Florida Ice and Farm (FIFCO), Gerardo Miranda.
At that time, it was quantified that the hotel emitted 4,880 tonnes of CO2e (or carbon dioxide equivalent). At the country level, the latest measurement in 2012 found that Costa Rica emits 11.2 million tonnes of CO2e.
The Westin's main greenhouse gas emissions are due to petrol and diesel from cars, electricity, the use of refrigerants and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) ( for transport and cooking).
The key to the Westin's success was reduction. According to Laura Mora, an official from the Climate Change Directorate, "most companies that enter the programme do not normally achieve this level of reduction" and this is what led the hotel to exceed carbon neutrality.
The hotel worked on harnessing the heat from air conditioners and installed a device that reduces the use of electricity, LPG and refrigerant gas reduction. These measures enabled the Westin to reduce around 1,295 tonnes of CO2e.
To offset its emissions, the hotel owns an area of about 265 hectares on its property that functions as a carbon sink. carbon sinkA forest with different stratifications of flora that fix carbon.
"What the forest mass does is that it absorbs CO2 from the atmosphere and incorporates it as part of the biomass of the trees," Miranda said.
To offset the total footprint , they used carbon credits of national origin, which were generated by the Ministry of Environment and Energy and were purchased from the Forest Finance Fund (Fonafifo) to achieve the government's carbon neutrality target for 2021, in order to offset the CO2 they produce.
As a result of these measures, all hotel services were able to offset 4,482 tonnes of CO2e (remember that they had already managed to reduce a further 1,295 tonnes).
When it came to the bottom line, the analysis showed that the hotel emits less carbon than it offsets.
In the future, the hotel is looking at the possibility of installing solar panels to generate electricity, changing the air conditioners to save electricity and purchasing electric cars for transporting hotel guests.
In addition, the Westin wants to increase the forest mass of the sink, so that the CO2 fixation in each year will be higher.
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While the Latin American region cuts down its forests to make room for agricultural fields, Costa Rica has managed to sustain its forests with the help of government incentives and even increased its forest cover.
A new study by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) gives us the bad news: 70% of deforestation in Latin America between 2000 and 2010 occurred to make way for commercial agriculture, but it also shows Costa Rica as a model country that managed to take a reverse route.
What makes Costa Rica so successful? FAO attributes the growth to government support and incentives to conserve forest cover and in particular the Payment for Environmental Services (PES)programme.
You may never have heard of the PES (I hope you have), but it is one of the most successful environmental public policies in the country's history and is often used as an example to replicate the model in other countries.Read more: The ice spiral: how the Arctic is disappearing
In essence, this programme is simple: if you conserve the forest on your property, Costa Rica will pay you. The official definition speaks of "a financial recognition by the State" to owners and holders of forests and forest plantations" for the value their forests provide.
A little reminder for those of us who are quick to forget: Costa Rica was a forest disaster for much of the 20th century and into the 1980s. The FAO itself explains that:
Previously, forests were considered "land banks" that could be converted as necessary to meet agricultural needs.
We went from having 75% of the country covered by forest in 1940, when today's octogenarians were being born, to 21% in 1987, when we reached the worst moment of our forest cover, as this graph from Revista Vacío shows.
This graph, produced by Rodrigo Ruiz for Revista Vacío, shows the percentage change and approximate geographic change in forest cover.
(Credits: Vacío Magazine)
Now, we have more than half of the country with forest cover and, of that cover, about 50% of the country's forest area is in protected areas, where the forest law prohibits land-use change.
Well, the PES and its predecessors happened.
The PES was built on the foundation of other policies in previous decades. As SINAC officials Francisco González and Sonia Lobo explained in a presentation in 1999 (when the green country model was still taking hold):
In 1979, in order to reduce the pressure on forests and incorporate new forest product options into the national market, the income tax deduction system was established, aimed at individuals or legal entities wishing to develop forest plantations for commercial purposes.
In 1986, with an amendment to the Forestry Law, another mechanism was created: the Forest Fertiliser Certificate. What was different about it? Not all people or companies with forests on their properties could access the income deduction system, so CAFs were created, which could be "traded or used to pay taxes, national and municipal fees or any tribute, or be cashed in at the National Stock Exchange," González and Lobo said at the time.Read more: Renewable energy costs to fall by up to 59% Will Latin America be greener?
Then, in 1997, PES was created, the mechanism that the FAO says did the country so much good. Between 1996 and 2015, investments in forest-related PES projects in Costa Rica reached $318 million.
The Programme pays for precisely these four environmental services provided by forests (which are defined in the 1995 Forestry Law, if you are curious):
The effectiveness of the programme improved over time. In the environmental chapter, the State of the Nation 2015 explains that between 1997 and 2000 the PES prevented two out of every 1,000 hectares protected under this modality from being deforested annually, equivalent to ten hectares out of every 1,000. (The authors clarify that while this impact seems small, this is because deforestation rates were already low at that time.
Mature forests occupy 31% of the territory and 18% in secondary forests.
(Credits: Victoria Reay )
As the programme took hold, the rate increased. Over the next five years, the rate doubled:between 2000 and 2005, 20 hectares out of every 1,000 (four per year) were preserved.
In a study conducted in the Sarapiquí area and published in 2012, a group of scientists analysed farms vulnerable to deforestation with and without PES and concluded that the programme increased forest cover by between 11% and 17% of the average forest area.
In general, PES is more efficient away from National Parks, as a 2015 study showed, something that is probably related to the level of law enforcement near national parks.Read more: Urban transformation, Incofer's great promise
These lands are usually more remote and, for the landowners, the opportunity cost of conservation is lower. What does this mean? It means that they are large landowners who generally consider that the PES payments are sufficient and that, if they were to use the land for something else, they would not be able to get the same benefit from it.
While the other countries in the region deforested their forests to make room for agricultural production, Costa Rica managed to reduce commodity crop pressure in favour of conservation and sustainable forest management, without losing food security.
Food insecurity has actually been on the rise since the 1990s, due to increases in agricultural productivity and food imports from countries with lower production costs, according to the new FAO report. The organisation's latest reports on food security are positive (although there are poor, landless and vulnerable rural households suffering the consequences of food insecurity).
This is key: if Costa Rica can conserve its forest cover while maintaining good levels of food security, why can't the rest of the region?
