By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

Costa Rica's embrace of zero emissions may soon have a major effect on tourism.

Some have long noted the contradiction between the government's policy seeking major reductions in the emissions of carbon dioxide and a policy of encouraging the visits by air of foreign tourists. But no one went public to point this out.

Now there are rumbling that airlines will soon be a target for climate activists. A report by a British university recommends that the institution cut the carbon footprint from long-haul air travel by 50 percent by 2025 and by 75 percent by 2030. That report came from Times Higher Education magazine and the University of Exeter.

The young Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg sailed across the Atlantic to New York City in August and said that she used the boat to raise awareness to the greenhouse gases emitted by the use of commercial airplanes.

Although Costa Rican ports receive more than 200,000 tourists briefly from cruise liners, the bulk of visitors comes from international flights.

Democratic presidential candidates who support restrictions of fossil fuels have been criticized by news commentators in the United States for their heavy use of carbon dioxide-emitting aircraft in their campaigns. Other politicians, such as New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have defended their airline use as being valid due to the importance of their work.

Some airlines have promoted their use of more efficient engines that produce less greenhouse gases.

A call to restrict air travel by academics also came last week from the new Climate Commission for U.K., which said it aims to create a “clear, cohesive and consistent response” to the climate emergency and will examine academics’ travel arrangements, according to the magazine report.

The British academic institution that issued the report is the University of Exeter. An environmental professor there, Juliet Osborne, set up a group of students and staffers this year after the university declared an environment and climate emergency, said the university. The group said the university, itself, should be carbon neutral by 2040 in terms of activities it directly controls, such as university vehicles and campus electricity, and by 2050 – or sooner – in indirect emissions, such as those associated with waste and products purchased.

Costa Rican officials, too, have pledged to make the country carbon neutral, first by 2021 and now by 2050. Other nations have similar goals, although Costa Rica has been recognized as a leader.

The concern about carbon dioxide is based on the theory that additional amounts of the gas will cause higher temperatures, sea-level rise and more active and dangerous weather. The gas is now about 402 parts per million, up significantly since pre-industrial times. Much of the concern is fueled by computer predictions.

Most academic disciplines hold annual conferences where researchers exchange views and job-seekers solicit interviews. So do many industries. Costa Rica constructed a National Conference Center in Heredia just for this purpose because the country is a likely location for major gatherings.

However, in some academic circles, professors are urging that conferences be smaller and regional to reduce air travel, as Times Higher Education noted.



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Could the expected increase on arrivals of international tourists affect President Alvarado Decarbonization Plan 2050?  We would like to know your thoughts on this story. Send your comments to news@amcostarica.com

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