Costa Rica - Implement a roadmap to improve organic waste management and reduce methane emissions

Rationale

Costa Rica’s 2020 NDC identifies action areas for sectors in transport, agriculture, energy, waste, and more. In the waste sector Costa Rica launched the Action Plan for Integrated Waste Management in 2019. The plan’s main areas for action include reducing waste at the source, waste sorting and collection, and recovery. 

This Action Plan is also intended to generate other policy products such as the National Composting Plan as well as a strategy to implement best technological practices to reduce methane from organic waste, to be published in 2022.  

This project will aim to provide targeted support to the municipalities of Costa Rica, who have a legal responsibility to manage waste on a in its territory. Capacity building support will seek to provide municipalities with technical assistance to include specific and quantifiable targets for the management of organic waste and methane reductions and strengthen skills for the preparation of feasibility studies. 

Other key stakeholders are IFAM (Institute of Municipal Development and Advisory), and private sector stakeholders involved in organic waste technology for composting and biogas.

This project will support methane mitigation in Costa Rica by implementing actions to improve organic waste management in line with Costa Rica's commitment under the Global Methane Pledge to contribute to a global methane mitigation target of 30% by 2030 (2020 baseline). 

Objectives

This project aims to:

• Strengthen the capacity of Costa Rican Municipalities to implement organic waste management projects and reduce methane emissions by the end of the project or soon after, supported by the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Environment and Energy of Costa Rica.
• Enable Municipalities in Costa Rica to endorse strategies to reduce emissions from organic waste with specific targets and implementation pathways (including financial plans).
• Implement organic waste management demonstration projects by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Environment and Energy.

Activities

To acheive these objectives the project will:
 

• Develop directives that guide local governments to meet organic waste management goals in alignment with the Global Methane Pledge and other national and international commitments.
• Develop a proposal of indicators to monitor actions carry out by Local Governments regarding separate waste collection and management of organic waste is presented to the National Comptroller (Contraloría General de la República) to be considered under the Municipal Performance Indicators System.
• Develop strategies for at least 10 municipalities to reduce emissions from organic waste with specific goal and implementation as well as financial plans to achieve the goals.
• Develop feasibility studies for approximately 10 organic waste projects.
• Develop implementation plans for three organic waste projects.
• Develop estimations of the methane emissions mitigation potential for the projects implemented or to be implemented in the framework of this project.

• Conduct awareness activities on the contribution of organic waste projects to methane emissions mitigation and the contribution to the NDC.
  
   

  
  
  Project reference: [CR-23-003] Costa Rica - Implement a roadmap to improve organic waste management and reduce methane emissions