Bridging Costa Rica’s green growth gap

The report analyzes Costa Rica's transition from an agricultural to an export-led economy, highlighting successes in biodiversity and renewable energy alongside critical failures in wastewater management and public transport. It argues that a lack of sustainable public infrastructure and a mismatch in workforce skills hinder the country's goal of carbon neutrality by 2021. The authors recommend streamlining public procurement, diversifying the energy mix beyond hydropower, and implementing a green industrial policy to reduce economic vulnerability to external shocks.

• Costa Rica has achieved significant success in forest and biodiversity protection, with forest cover increasing from approximately 40% in 1996 to around 53% in 2014, supported by the Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) scheme.
• The country's electricity sector is predominantly renewable, with 80% to 90% of power coming from renewable sources, primarily hydropower (67%) and geothermal energy (15%).
• A critical environmental gap exists in wastewater management; 76% of residential wastewater is diverted to septic tanks, and only 4.2% of the fraction captured by sewage pipes undergoes remedial treatment.
• The transport sector is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for 80% of internationally-reported GHG net emissions in 2010, driven by a lack of investment in public transport and a rising fleet of private cars.
• Costa Rica's economic model is vulnerable to external shocks due to high export concentration, particularly in microelectronics, as evidenced by the partial closure of Intel's operations which resulted in the loss of 1,500 jobs.
• There is a significant skills mismatch in the workforce: while there is an adequate supply of industrial labor, there is a shortage of workers with the advanced technical, creative, and 'soft' skills required for an innovation-based economy.
• Public infrastructure investment has stagnated since the 1980s, with transport investment barely exceeding 1% of GDP, compared to pre-1980 levels that were not below 13% of GDP.
• The country faces a rising fiscal deficit and low tax mobilization, collecting less than two-thirds of the tax receipts from GDP compared to the average rate for OECD member states.
• The power system is vulnerable to climate change, specifically droughts, as it relies heavily on hydropower; the economic impact of impending acute water shortages is estimated at $1 billion at current prices.
• Agriculture is a major source of GHG emissions and suffers from high fertilizer intensity, which was more than five times greater than in neighboring Panama and Nicaragua in 2011.

APA

Granoff, I., Araya, M., Ulbrich, P., Pickard, S., & Haywood, C. (2015). Bridging Costa Rica’s green growth gap. Climate and Development Knowledge Network. https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/files/9997.pdf

Chicago

Granoff, Ilmi, Monica Araya, Philipp Ulbrich, Sam Pickard, and Caroline Haywood. Bridging Costa Rica’s green growth gap. Climate and Development Knowledge Network, 2015. https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/files/9997.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Granoff |first1=Ilmi |last2=Araya |first2=Monica |last3=Ulbrich |first3=Philipp |last4=Pickard |first4=Sam |last5=Haywood |first5=Caroline |title=Bridging Costa Rica’s green growth gap |publisher=Climate and Development Knowledge Network |date=September 2015 |url=https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/files/9997.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{granoff2015bridging, author = {Granoff, Ilmi and Araya, Monica and Ulbrich, Philipp and Pickard, Sam and Haywood, Caroline}, title = {{Bridging Costa Rica’s green growth gap}}, institution = {Climate and Development Knowledge Network}, year = {2015}, month = sep, url = {https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/files/9997.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }