The presidential inauguration ceremony in Costa Rica will be celebrated on Tuesday, May 8, when Carlos Alvarado will be sworn in for a four-year term of office; this year, for the first time, the ceremony will be carbon neutral, which means that measures are being taken to reduce the waste and limit the carbon footprint, and also, to offset the unavoidable emissions generated by the event.

The challenge was taken on by Gina Guillen, general director of Protocol and Ceremony of the State, who proposed the idea to the newly elected president Carlos Alvarado, with the goal of making this a sustainable event in line with the country’s objectives in environmental aspects.

To achieve this, the participation of non-governmental organizations is key, for instance, the organization Costa Rica Neutral is calculating the carbon footprint that the logistic of the event will produce, while another NGO will be donating the necessary funding to compensate the impact through a figure of payment for environmental services; the funds will be go to a climate protection project that reduces the same volume of greenhouse gases as generated by the event, in this case it’s a primary forest land in indigenous territory.

The inauguration ceremony which will be held at the Plaza de la Democracia in San Jose had an allocated budget of $177,000.00 with the possibility of increasing it at the request of the president; however, Alvarado had been adamant since the beginning about the importance of keeping the costs under the budget given; at this point, according to Guillen the act would have a total cost of under $141,000.00 which represents $89,000.00 less than the total spent in 2014 and over $200,000.00 less than the inauguration act of 2010.

In order to achieve this, the organization limited the size of the international delegations, changed the traditional lunch for special guests for a cocktail, and the Government will pay for only one night of lodging. Instead of renting cars, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs requested the support of other government institutions such as the Costa Rica Electric Institute and the Ministry of Public Works.

President Carlos Alvarado and his team will arrive to Plaza de la Democracia by bus. The event will conclude at around 4 p.m. with a free concert.