Research Information Series Lecture 

Toward a Free Carbon Economy in a Developing Country: Case of Costa Rica

Professor Roberto Quirós, Visiting Professor, The University of Costa Rica
 

Abstract

Climate Change is the greatest challenge of the 21st century for current and future generations to face. Countries of the planet are obligated to change their current consumption modelsbased on fossil fuels toward models that result in less harmful impacts. Alternative energies and new patterns of consumption are seen as unique strategies to mitigate and adapt to the Climate Change´s effects. Costa Rica a small country with only 5 million inhabitants and the desire to be a sustainable country. Inspired by the COP21, it has developed and presented to the world an innovative strategy for the decarbonization of its economy by 2050. The strategy is based on 10 axes which include, among others, an aggressive reduction plan of CO2 emissions by the transportation sector, which is the main contributor of greenhouse gases in the country.

Biography 

Roberto Quirós  finished his Phd in Environmental Science and Technologies at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain in 2014 and has a Post Doctorate in Industrial Ecology and Sustainability at the School of Minas d´Ales in France, 2015. Currently Dr. Quirós is a visiting Professor in the GSOE Chemical Engineering Department.  He is a tenured Professor at the University of Costa Rica where he works as professor and researcher at the School of Industrial Engineering and the Director of the Sustainable Organizational Processes. For more than ten years Dr. Quirós has been researching subjects related to sustainability in the field of Industrial Ecology and Circular Economy to quantity the impact of society on the environment, and to find solutions to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change and other impacts. In the last four years Dr. Quirós was member of Ciencia y Tecnología para el Desarrollo Sostenible (CYTED) which is a Latin American network to promote Sustainable Development in the region. Likewise, Dr. Quirós has published in indexed journals and is a member of different research groups in USA, Europe and Latin America.