One of the tasks of the Central Bank of Costa Rica is the compilation of national environmental economic accounts. These activities aim to make a relevant contribution to the further development of the existing national information system, which supports the design of environmental policies as well as enables the monitoring of the impact of measures taken by various actors.
The compilation of environmental economic accounts in Costa Rica is based on the implementation of the international standard for environmental economic accounts - known as System of Environmental and Economic Accounting (SEEA). Currently, several national SEEA satellite accounts are compiled at the Central Bank of Costa Rica. These include the national energy accounts and the calculation of national energy-related emissions to air (SEEA-Energy) based on them.
However, building such multi-purpose information systems is a long-term process. The availability of data and the procedures used for data collection and account compilation play an important role. For this and for the validation of the results, the technical support of international experts is sought.
In 2021, the Wuppertal Institute was commissioned by the Central Bank of Costa Rica to provide technical support to the Environmental Statistics Department of the Central Bank of Costa Rica so that the monetary component of the already existing physical energy flow accounts for Costa Rica can be built up according to the rules of "SEEA-Energy". These advisory activities are carried out within the framework of the MEFA-CR project. With the complete recording of energy flows in both physical and monetary units, important datasets are provided so that Costa Rica has additional decision-relevant information to support its national renewable energy policy and climate targets.