Q COSTA RICA – In an effort to achieve its goal of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions and becoming climate neutral by 2021, Costa Rica’s Environment Minister Edgar Gutierrèz invited his German counterpart, Barbara Anne Hendricks, to the country for political talks.
According to the Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety website, the four-day trip will center around talks with members of the government and with the President of Costa Rica. The meeting will be mainly devoted to the partnership between the two countries on the implementation of Costa Rica’s nationally determined contribution and also to forest conservation and restoration under the Bonn Challenge.
In addition, Minister Hendricks will visit two climate action projects funded under the International Climate Initiative of the BMUB.
In its aid to Costa Rica, for instance, the BUMB is supporting a project of the Coffee Institute of Costa Rica (ICAFE) which aims to achieve the first climate neutral production of coffee worldwide. As part of its national biodiversity strategy 2016-2025 and with Germany’s support, Costa Rica wants to establish a biotope network in Jicaral on the Nicoya Peninsula to conserve biodiversity and its sustainable use.
Minister Hendricks commented: “I very much welcome Costa Rica’s commitment at national and international level to protecting species diversity. The country is home to valuable mangrove and dry forests and it is imperative that these are protected. Costa Rica has made great strides, not just in relation to preserving biodiversity, but also in low-emission energy supply and conserving and expanding its forests.”
Hendricks, a member of the SPD party since December 2013, has been Germany’s Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety; From 2007 to 2013, she was Federal Treasurer of the SPD, and from 1998 to 2007 she was Parliamentary Secretary of State at the Federal Ministry of Finance.
Hendricks led the German delegations to the 2014 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Lima and the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris. In August 2015, she was part of Chancellor Merkel’s delegation to the first joint cabinet meeting of the governments of Germany and Brazil in Brasília.
