1. Mónica Rodríguez-Zúñiga
The Use of the Energy and CO2 Emissions Accounts for Policy in Costa Rica
Irene Alvarado-Quesada
Mónica Rodríguez-Zúñiga

2. Timeline of environmental accounts of Costa Rica
2012 → First approach with WAVES/World Bank to start the compilation of environmental accounts
2014 → Forest and Water accounts
2015 → Energy accounts
May 2016 → Publication of the first environmental accounts for Costa Rica
October 2017 → Update of environmental accounts

3. Energy and CO2 emissions accounts
Available for the years
Account focuses exclusively on use of energy; supply and transformation are not included yet.
CO2 emissions correspond to the emissions generated by consumption of energy products by economic activity.
Emissions are in gross terms: emission reductions generated by other activities in an equivalente way are not recorded in the account.

4. Costa Rica: Composition of the total gross energy requirements by source, 2011-2015
Source: BCCR, Costa Rica’s Energy Account

5. Energy and CO2 emissions accounts
Energy sources used for electricity supply, 2015
Main use of primary energy sources → power generation.
Main use of secondary energy sources → fossil fuels (60% of total net energy use in 2015).
Fossil fuels, mainly by services activities (22%) and households (20%).
Source: BCCR, Costa Rica’s Energy Account

6. Costa Rica: Energy intensity, share of gross value added and employment by economic activity, 2015
In general, services activities have the lowest energy intensities and the highest contributions to the gross value added and employment.
The sugar manufacturing activity →highest energy intensity, reaching TJ/million CRC in This value is associated with the use of bagasse as an energy source.
During the period , the activity that has shown the greatest decrease in energy intensity is electricity and water supply (-58%).
Source: BCCR, Costa Rica’s Energy Account

7. Costa Rica: GDP and CO2 emissions interanual variation (%), 2011-2015
Decline between yeard caused by the reduction in the use of bunker as an energy product.
Decoupling between CO2 emissions and production in the country
Source: BCCR, Costa Rica’s Energy Account and Production Statistics

8. Uses and Users of the Energy Accounts
Energy accounts have not been used yet explicitly to develop public policy.
Applications have been identified for the energy accounts:
Monitoring and evaluation of national plans of the energy sector.
Policy analysis.

9. Policy/ Project Uses Users
Energy Accounts
Monitoring and evaluation
Directorate of Climate Change
National Climate Change Strategy
Secretariat of Planning of the Energy Subsector
VII National Energy Plan
Ministry of National Planning and Economic Policy
Sustainable Development Goals
Policy analysis
Central Bank of Costa Rica
IEEM - CR
MIE
TIMES- CR
Policy/ Project
Uses
Users
Source: BCCR.

10. Monitoring and evaluation
I. National Climate Change Strategy (ENCC)
Directorate of Climate Change of MINAE.
Aim: to achieve carbon neutrality in 2021 and to become resilient to impacts of climate change.
Six strategic axes at a national scale: mitigation, adaptation, measuring, capacity building, awareness raising and funding.
Priority sectors for emissions reduction:
Electricity generation
Transport
Agriculture
Water resources
Solid waste management
Tourism
Carbon neutrality 2021
Reduce sectorial vulnerability
System of monitoring verification and reporting
Development of technol,ogies
Conscious culture of CC

11. Monitoring and evaluation
II. National Energy Plan
Secretariat of Planning of the Energy Subsector (SEPSE) of MINAE.
Aim: to achieve energy efficiency with low emission levels.
Reduce dependency on hydrocarbons, especially in transport sector.
By means of the energy accounts, institutional channels between account compilers and decision makers have been created.
Enegy efficiency plans for energy intensive industries
Oil refinery

12. Monitoring and evaluation
III. Sustainable Development Goals
Assistance in monitoring two main targets associated to SDG 7:
Target 7.3 → Increasing the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix by 2030.
Tarjet 7.3. → Doubling the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency.

13. Policy Analysis BCCR-IDB
I. Integrated Environmental Economic Modeling for Costa Rica (IEEM-CR)
BCCR-IDB
Recursive, dynamic GEM that incorporates the environmental accounts.
Forward-looking analysis of public policies and understanding of the impact of decisions before their implementation.
Risk scenarios that consider environmental factors for macroeconomic projections.
Country vulnerable to climate change

14. Policy Analysis II. Integrated Modeling of the Economy (MIE)
Mideplan and UN-DESA
Training workshops on integrated economic modeling to cover economic and social dimensions of sustainable development.
Use of GEM to model selected social indicators
Example: effect of reduction of CO2 emissions established in the INDCs over GDP growth and employment
Transfer of knowledge to develop modeling technologies for policy analysis
Intended nationally determined contributions

15. Policy Analysis III. TIMES-CR PMR-CR /World Bank
Support program to develop projections for long- term planning to comply with INDCs.
Analysis of the decarbonization pathways available for Costa Rica.
BCCR member of the analysis team
Identify data and understand quality of information.
Validate underlying assumptions of the model and parameters according to Costa Rican’ context.
Solid toolkit for decision making
Use of energy by economic activity, medium term projections of GDP growth by industry

16. Future challenges
Development of the supply and transformation components of the energy accounts to expand their outreach for policy making.
Continuous improvement of existing accounts (additional sources of information, strengthening of existing data).
Emphasize institutional channels for interactions with actors of the energy sector.

17. Questions for the London Group
Are there additional applications or uses that you consider could be developed from what you have seen from the energy and CO2 emissions accounts of Costa Rica?
What are some of the best practices that you have implemented to use the environmental accounts as policy tools?

18. Thank you