Embassy of the United States San Jose, Costa Rica

San Jose – April 22, 2010

I am delighted to join you this morning to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. To my friend Luis Gamboa, President of the American Chamber of Commerce, and to Saul Kierszenson, President of the Clean Technology Cluster and Co-founder of CO2 Neutral 2021, thanks for your leadership on environmental initiatives in the business community. Thanks also to your organizations, the AmCham Environment Committee and the Clean Technology Cluster, for joining with the Embassy in organizing this opportunity on Earth Day to look at how investing in clean energy and energy efficiency meets not only our pressing environmental needs, but also addresses our security and economic imperatives.

Since my arrival here in January, I have been impressed by Costa Rica’s focus on sustainability and, in particular, by President Oscar Arias’ Peace with Nature Initiative and his commitment to putting Costa Rica on a path toward attaining carbon neutrality by 2021. So I am honored and delighted to share this dais today with Dr. Pedro Leon, who has long been a leader in advancing Costa Rica’s sustainable development. 

I have also been impressed with the commitment of President-elect Laura Chinchilla to further Costa Rica’s efforts toward low-carbon development and, ultimately, carbon neutrality. She has put together an impressive team in the environment and energy area who understand that investing in clean energy and energy efficiency is vital to Costa Rica’s environmental and economic future. I am pleased that we could have the esteemed Don Teafilo de la Torre with us today who will be the new Environment and Energy Minister.

Costa Rica is renowned for its biodiversity and research centers, and one of the most impressive is Costa Rica’s National Biodiversity Institute (“INbio”), which has benefitted since its inception in 1989 from the scientific achievements and visionary leadership of Dr. Rodrigo Gamez.

The commitment to Costa Rica’s environment is embraced by the business community in Costa Rica. One of the shining examples is Intel, led by its General Manager Mr. Michael Forrest, which was honored by the U.S. State Department as one of eleven finalists for the Award for Corporate Excellence (ACE), among other reasons for Intel’s responsible environmental stewardship and practices.

Before I left the States, I had a chance to hear a presentation by Dr. Tom Lovejoy, Chief Biodiversity Advisor to the President of the World Bank and CRUSA, that was quite sobering. From a scientific perspective: climate change is real. Owing largely to our burning of fossil fuels, the Earth’s average temperature has risen about 0.7 degrees Centigrade over the past century and, if left unchecked, will continue warming to dangerously high levels. Sea levels are rising and we’re seeing more intense and more frequent storm events that take lives and bring huge economic losses. We’re seeing more prolonged droughts, which threaten to disrupt water supplies and agricultural production. We’re seeing coral reefs dying off from rising ocean temperatures and the seas becoming more acidic and less hospitable to life at the base of the marine food chain. And we are seeing the loss of plant and animal species on land and the spread of tropical disease vectors to areas where those diseases were previously unknown. How real is climate change in Costa Rica? Many experts believe that Costa Rica’s cloud forests will disappear in the next decade. 

At the same time, we are seeing a change in the business climate. Our economies are increasingly linked, bringing about greater movements of people, goods and services, capital, and information. We have gone from an era of so-called “cheap” oil to an era of increased volatility in oil prices. As a result of both global environmental and economic trends, a growing number of consumers, shareholders, and insurance companies are concerned about the risks posed to firms that are heavily dependent on fossil fuels or that do not produce in ways that are sustainable. 

“Business as usual” is not sustainable, neither from an environmental perspective nor an economic perspective. A remedy for both global climate change and “business climate change” is a clean energy economy. 

A clean energy economy is good for the environment, good for the economy, and good for our common security. The clean energy path means:

• stronger energy security by using more indigenous resources rather than relying on imported fuels;

• less exposure to oil price shocks; 

• a smart grid delivering reliable and cost-effective power;

• greater national resilience to natural disasters by using more local sources of energy and less centralized distribution systems; and,

• significant growth opportunities driven by the creation of “green jobs” at home, rather than sending money out the door to create jobs in other places.

A clean energy economy connects us to shared prosperity—at home and globally. 

This is as true for nations as it is for private companies. That is why, during his first months in office a year ago, President Obama pushed through the nearly $800 billion “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act” that included some $80 billion to boost energy conservation and clean energy development with innovative projects. The Obama Administration has also established historic new fuel economy standards and spearheaded an agreement by all G20 nations to phase out their fossil fuel subsidies. President Obama is also working closely with Congress to advance comprehensive climate and energy legislation that would further promote clean energy investments and lower U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by more than 80 percent below current levels by 2050.

On the international front, the United States has elevated climate change and clean energy to a top tier foreign policy issue. President Obama, Secretary of State Clinton, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, and other members of the President’s cabinet engaged personally and intensively to reach the “Copenhagen Accord” at last December’s difficult United Nations negotiations on climate change. Despite the controversy and challenges of Copenhagen, to date, some 120 countries have signed on to that Accord. I’m pleased to note that both the United States and Costa Rica are among those countries that have formally taken commitments in signing on to the Copenhagen Accord.

We are off to a fast start toward fulfilling the developed countries’ Copenhagen commitment of mobilizing $100 billion a year by 2020 to address developing country needs on energy and climate. When President Obama took office in January 2009, the U.S. budget for international climate work was about $300 million. We raised that to about $1.3 billion with our Fiscal Year 2010 budget for international climate financing. These resources will help our partners in the region and around the world to combat climate change. 

The United States especially committed to helping put the Americas on a sustainable energy path. At last year’s Summit of the Americas, President Obama announced the “Energy & Climate Partnership of the Americas,” also known as “ECPA.” The U.S. has thus far committed $60 million for various ECPA efforts. Thanks to ECPA’s flexible, country-driven, “menu of options” approach, a number of countries have stepped up to take the lead on a number of specific initiatives. For example, Costa Rica is spearheading the creation of a “Regional Energy Efficiency Center” here in San Jose. This brings together experts from MINAET, the U.S. Department of Energy, the University of Costa Rica, and the Natural Resources Defense Council to boost energy efficiency efforts here and elsewhere in Central America.

Just last week in Washington, DC, Secretary of Energy Chu and Secretary of State Clinton co-hosted a ministerial meeting to further advance ECPA. Working with ministers and others from around Latin America and the Caribbean, they looked at how we can work more closely together on energy efficiency, renewable energy, clean fossil fuels, energy poverty, and infrastructure, as well as climate change-related work related to sustainable landscapes (agriculture & forests) and climate change adaptation.

I’m especially pleased to note that Secretary Clinton last week announced several more ECPA initiatives, some of which we will carry out right here in Costa Rica. One, the “Energy and Environmental Security Initiative,” will help the region overcome some of the remaining regulatory and institutional hurdles to the region’s electricity integration program. This initiative will also help Central American and Caribbean countries move their climate change adaptation programs from strategy to action. The Secretary also announced that many of the more than 2,000 Peace Corps volunteers serving in the Americas will be trained in renewable energy and energy efficiency project development. These volunteers will help local communities, small businesses, and microfinance institutions develop low-cost solutions and cleaner ways of powering their homes and businesses, bringing both economic and health benefits to local citizens.

In sum, the United States, under the leadership of President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is strongly committed to working with Costa Rica and others in the region to address the challenges of global climate change and clean energy development. We know that the “pathway to prosperity” is green. By that I mean that through investing in energy efficiency, renewable energy, and smarter, more inter-connected electricity grids, can we enhance our energy security, boost our economic competitiveness, and create strong, durable economies for the 21st century that provide shared prosperity for the cities of the U.S. and Costa Rica.

While government leadership and public-private partnerships are important, we know that, it will be the investment and innovation that comes from the private sector that will really move us forward on low-carbon or carbon neutral development. To unleash this potential, governments must create the enabling environment needed for this investment, including clear rules that incentivize private initiative in clean energy and energy efficiency. In the end, a clean energy economy is an opportunity and a responsibility that must be carried forward in partnership between the public and private sector.
In sum, whether your concern is security, competitiveness, or the environment, accelerating the development and deployment of clean energy represents the way forward. I can’t think of a better way to celebrate this 40th Anniversary of Earth Day than by embarking together to a low-carbon future so that, in another forty years, our children and our grandchildren will indeed have ample reason to celebrate the 80th Anniversary of Earth Day. Thank you very much.