LONDON, England – Lord Goldsmith concluded his visit to Costa Rica on January 27, celebrating their pioneering leadership on climate and the environment, and developing the close partnership between the two countries just a few weeks after the UK hosted the UN climate conference, says Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO).
Environment minister Andrea Meza and Lord Goldsmith travelled across the country, to see some of the scalable work that is underway. Together, they visited indigenous peoples, national parks, research centres and farms – and saw how Costa Rica’s Earthshot Prize-winning programme is paying people for the benefits they can provide by managing land sustainably,” adds FCDO. “They saw the positive impacts of bringing Costa Rica’s decarbonisation plan to life – with an ambitious transport electrification plan building on the success of running the country on over 98 percent renewable energy for seven consecutive years. And Lord Goldsmith heard about Costa Rica’s Natural Asset Company initiative, an innovative financial mechanism that will incentivise conservation and sustainable land use.”
Over a quarter of Costa Rica’s land is protected. The country contains 5 percent of the planet’s biodiversity in just 0.03 percent of the earth’s landmass, and more than half of Costa Rica is under canopy – the result of a national campaign to double the rainforest in a generation.
During his visit, Lord Goldsmith commended president Alvarado on the expansion of the Cocos Island National Park, making Costa Rica one of the first countries in the world to protect 30 percent of their waters. And alongside Colombia, Ecuador, and Panama, Costa Rica made headlines at COP26 when the four countries announced that they are now working together to protect some of the world’s most important and biodiverse environments in the Eastern Pacific Tropical Marine Corridor – set to become the largest transboundary marine protected area in the world, said the FCDO report.
“Lord Goldsmith praised their leadership and announced that the UK will provide an initial £2 million as part of the newly established Blue Planet Fund financed through UK Aid, and drawing on decades of experience gained through the Blue Belt that protects an area of ocean larger than India around the UK Overseas Territories.”
