GCA CEO and Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves commit to strong partnership to drive local and regional adaptation action
San José, Costa Rica, 10th July 2022 –The CEO of the Global Center on Adaptation (GCA), Professor Dr. Patrick Verkooijen, today paid an official visit to Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves Robles, to discuss the importance of climate adaptation in Central America and Costa Rica’s international leadership on the environment.
Costa Rica is home to one of the largest percentages of protected land in the world: 26 percent of the nation’s territory as well as almost three percent of its sea surface.
In spite of its strong policy commitment to sustainability and the protection of nature, the Central American nation is still vulnerable to climate change impacts. In recent years, floods and storms have had a high human and economic toll in Costa Rica, a country of low-lying coasts that are extremely vulnerable to storm surges and tropical cyclones. Landslides and drought are also causing increasing damage to Costa Rica’s agricultural areas.
President Chaves expressed that the Costa Rican Government is determined to strengthen the capacity of its people, particularly minorities and vulnerable populations, to adapt to climate change and discussed the value of forging a strong partnership with GCA to scale climate adaptation action.
Professor Verkooijen shared the successes of GCA’s flagship program, the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program (AAAP), and offered to work with President Chaves in designing and launching a similar model for Latin America and the Caribbean countries. The AAAP’s Upstream Financing Facility has already yielded more than $3 billion of downstream investments with Multilateral Development Banks in 19 countries across Africa.
The President of Costa Rica expressed a strong willingness to work with GCA in the development and implementation of a similar program tailored to suit the urgent climate needs of the Americas and develop synergies with the International Monetary Fund’s Resilience and Sustainability Fund.
Professor Verkooijen’s meeting with President Chaves took place within the context of his visit to Costa Rica to participate in GCA’s Latin American and Caribbean Youth Adaptation Forum, which will take place at the University of Costa Rica on August 12,th International Youth Day. The Forum, organized by GCA and its Youth Advisory Panel, is a culminating event, the last of seven regional youth adaptation forums carried out to collect youth perspectives on the international adaptation agenda and include their voices in the review of the Global Goal on Adaptation.
About the Global Center on Adaptation
The Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) is an international organization which works as a solutions broker to accelerate action and support for adaptation solutions, from the international to the local, in partnership with the public and private sector. Founded in 2018, GCA operates from its headquarters in the largest floating office in the world, located in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. GCA has a worldwide network of regional offices in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire; Dhaka, Bangladesh and Beijing, China.
