IICA and GIZ support Costa Rican initiative designed to reduce emissions caused by the coffee industry

San Jose, Costa Rica, November 23, 2012 (IICA). The Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) and Germany’s international cooperation agency (GIZ) are supporting the efforts of Costa Rica’s coffee sector to reduce the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused by the industry. They are doing so by means of advisory assistance and training to gain access to financial resources, and the establishment of links with possible partners in other parts of the world.

Assisted by the Ministry of Environment, Energy, and Telecommunications (MINAET), IICA, and the GIZ, the sector is formulating a Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Action (NAMA) designed to enhance the efficiency of production, make sustainable use of natural resources, and reduce GHG emissions.

The design of the NAMA, a financing instrument for sustainability projects created under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), could be completed before the end of 2012, with implementation getting under way around the middle of next year, explained Andreas Nieters, the GIZ’s representative in Costa Rica.

“At the upcoming Conference of the Parties to the Framework Convention, or COP 18, the work carried out to date will be presented as an innovative, exemplary initiative undertaken by this country,” commented David Williams, Manager of IICA’s Agriculture, Natural Resources and Climate Change Program.

The COP 18 will be taking place in Doha, Qatar, from November 26 to December 7 this year.

In addition to the coffee sector, Costa Rica’s public transport and solid waste management sectors are trying to devise an emissions reduction strategy. IICA, GIZ, and MINAET recently organized a training workshop for representatives of all three sectors on the steps involved in structuring a NAMA and using it to secure financing.

The steps are part of the requirements established by the UNFCCC.

Williams remarked that in recent years Costa Rica’s coffee sector had made an effort to mitigate its environmental impact, and the experience could be transferred to other agricultural activities with the support of Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG) and the Tropical Agriculture Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE).

“Costa Rica is a very proactive country and the NAMAs will enable it access financial resources for reducing its GHG emissions. This also obliges it to devise a proposal that will take it beyond mitigation, towards adaptation to climate change,” Nieters added.

The training activity, held at IICA Headquarters in October, involved some 40 representatives of the public and private coffee, public transport and waste management sectors, who pledged to draw up the NAMAs in the short term.

The GIZ representative mentioned that, in addition to Costa Rica, his agency was supporting the development of mitigation strategies by the productive sectors of Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, and Chile.

For more information, contact:
david.williams@iica.int