President of Costa Rica, Carlos Alvarado was emphatic during the inauguration ceremony about the importance of protecting the environment and of taking the necessary steps towards reaching the country goal of becoming a carbon-neutral economy by 2021.

The Presidential Inauguration Ceremony was a carbon neutral event, the president, his family and team arrived at the ceremony aboard Nyuti the first fuel cell hydrogen electric bus in Central America.

“Carbon neutrality is big homework for our generation, and Costa Rica must be among the first countries that achieves it, if not the first”, the President said, and continued, “We have the titanic and beautiful task of abolishing the use of fossil fuels in our economy to make way for the use of clean and renewable energies.”

He followed up on his words by signing an executive decree that promotes the use of hydrogen as fuel.

“We are instructing institutions that are involved in the environment and energy sectors so that, within the frame of their competency (MINAE, ICE and Recope), they develop a plan of action with the purpose of promoting the investigation, production and commercialization of hydrogen as fuel”, reads the decree.

“We must drive a decided and coordinated action of all sectors in society to begin and accelerate in an irreversible way this process, not just pushing electric transportation and production, hydrogen and other technologies, but also by modernizing our institutions”, said President Alvarado.

The biggest challenge in Costa Rica’s objective of reducing the emission of contaminants such as carbon dioxide is in the transportation sector; over half of its greenhouse gas emissions are produced by a transport fleet involving over 1.3 million vehicles; in addition to this the country has fallen behind with the modernization of public transportation and transportation that operates with alternative energies such as electricity.

Even though the goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2021 is considered by many “utopic” or unrealistic, establishing this goal has pushed the country in the right direction by taking steps towards the use of clean energy and the reduction of emissions; however, there is still a long road ahead, specially in sectors such as the agriculture industry where the use of pesticides is alarming.