The overarching goal of the NAMA Support Project (NSP) “Low-Carbon Coffee Costa Rica” is to support the production and processing of low-emission and sustainable coffee in Costa Rica. The goal explicitly aims at reducing GHG emissions, but also at producing and processing high quality coffee in an environmentally and socially sustainable manner, taking into account the fact that coffee production has to be highly competitive to maintain access to international markets; and has to provide adequate income to farmers and preserve natural resources such as soil and water in order to be sustainable. Therefore, leveraging of additional public and private financing for investments in sustainable coffee plantations, processing technologies and low-carbon measures in coffee mills are key requirements to reach the envisaged goal. The project approach aims at the long-term transformation of the coffee sector by emphasizing the importance of channeling investments and allocating resources in favor of low-emission technologies, also taking into account the international tendencies of increasing markets for low-emission products in the future, such as the European Union.
The application of the Coffee NAMA will strengthen the implementation of national climate policy – Costa Rica aims to be one of the first countries to become carbon neutral in 2021 (based on inventory from 2005). In order to achieve this goal, the country is implementing the National Climate Change Strategy (ENCC), which lists the agriculture sector as one of the main areas of intervention for mitigation. The Coffee NAMA will have a significant impact on the carbon neutrality of the agricultural sector, regarding the real emissions of this sub-sector and the importance of knowledge management and capacity development.
