Costa Rica ’s greenish credentials already put the Central American res publica near the top of the list when it derive to battling clime change , but if their fresh elect President is to be believed , then it ’s go to climb higher still .

In his inaugural language , which he turn up to ride a hydrogen - fueled jitney , Carlos Alvarado Quesada announced that he wants to moderate Costa Rica to become the first decarburize body politic in the world . This will include scrapping the useof all fossil fuels – even those used for transport .

“ Decarbonization is the great job of our coevals and Costa Rica must be one of the first country in the humankind to accomplish it , if not the first , ” President Alvaradotold the crowd . “ We have the titanic and beautiful task of get rid of the purpose of fossil fuel in our economic system to make style for the habit of clear and renewable energies . ”

There is no incertitude that this is an challenging goal . Even though Costa Rica is widely reported to be generate more than 99 percent of its electricity from renewable source – trust largely on hydropower , geothermic , and lead – this generally only refers to domestic employment .

While   that is obviously an awesome achievement , it tend to mean we overlook other major sources of carbon , in particular the machine and trucks trundling along the streets . Now that most household are running off of renewables , it intend Costa Rica ’s main source of greenhouse gas emission has shifted to transferral . And Quesada now has that sphere firmly in his sights .

During his triumph speech after he won the election by a landslide last month , he said that he desire to begin the decarbonization of the transport industry by 2021 . “ When we hit 200 years of independent life history we will take Costa Rica forward and lionize … that we ’ve removed gasoline and diesel from our transportation,”Alvarado say .

This prey is mostly opine to be unrealistic , primarily as the engineering still is n’t really there to have a carbon - free transportation system , but many still consider it a great finish to aim for and will likely lay the critical groundwork . The world needs countries like Costa Rica to push on with fantastic schema like this to show the repose what can be done and that the Paris climate arrangement can be met .