How green is Costa Rica really? Not so much, according to Yale’s Environmental Performance Index (EPI) that dropped Costa Rica’s rank from 5th out of 178 in 2012 to 54th last year.
The drop, experts say, is attributed to new categories added to the index.
Waste water is one those additions, and Costa Rica’s failure in that area was a major reason for the drop in the rankings. In that area, Costa Rica scored 0.9 out of 100, placing it 125th globally.
Poor performance in Costa Rica’s ambitious plan to become the first carbon-neutral country by 2021, was in the category of climate and energy, with a score of only 38.46 and ranking 98th.
This confirms what many of us have been saying for quite some time. Costa Rica has done a lot by setting aside much of its land to nature preserves, but the waste water situation and the condition of the rivers are deplorable. Also, the traffic congestion, which burns fossil fuels unnecessarily and fouls the air, undoubtedly loses Costa Rica many points. Costa Rica’s continued dependence on fossil fuels for power generation is another area where improvement could be made – the country should invest more in solar and wind generation.
The graphic accompanying this article would be much more helpful if it were accompanied by a key for the colors used.