Yale SOM Alumni Push to Make Costa Rica Carbon Neutral by 2021

Yale School of Management (SOM) alumni, graduate students from the Yale Schools of Law and Forestry & Environmental Studies (FES), and Costa Rican leaders are working to influence climate change in the highest levels of the Costa Rican government.

CO2Neutral2021, an organization founded by Costa Rican Roberto Jimenez '09, has been working to develop a roadmap for Costa Rica to achieve its goal of carbon neutrality by 2021. The group of twelve young leaders, which includes law students, earth scientists, architects, agronomists, entrepreneurs, green energy experts, agronomists, and others, developed a report regarding the feasibility of Costa Rica President Oscar Arias' goal of CO2 neutrality by 2021 and recommendations to achieve that goal. Currently, with the report finished, the group is meeting with decision makers in the Costa Rican government, press, and civil society to drive action on this issue.

The group's research and modeling shows that technology implementation alone will not make Costa Rica, one of the greenest nations, carbon neutral; behavioral change on a massive scale is required. In speaking with government officials and the candidates in the upcoming presidential election, the group’s leaders say it is apparent that Costa Rica has the political will to implement measures — which are often quite expensive for developing nations — that will enable and incentivize this behavioral shift.

The Yale alumni and students involved in CO2Neutral2021 are: Roberto Jimenez, SOM '09; Yusing Wu, SOM '09; Lowry Pressly, LAW '11; Paul Beaton, LAW/FES '10; and Daniella Aburto, FES '10.