Research Fellow Alvaro Umaña is the Head and Political Coordinator of the Costa Rican Negotiating Team at Copenhagen.

Dr. Alvaro Umaña, Research Fellow at EfD Central America, was designated as Head and Political Coordinator of the Costa Rican Negotiating Team for the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen (COP15), Denmark, 7-18 December 18, 2009.

In his own words yesterday, December 1st, after the presentation of the Negotiating Team to press, he said:

The authors surveyed firms participating in emissions trading programs in Santiago, Chile, to explore further whether tradable permits are appropriate for transition and developing economies. Their survey information revealed serious implementation and design flaws in Chile’s trading, but they are not more severe than the EU or U.S. systems. Countries with similar income levels and institutional maturity as Chile should be able to develop well-functioning permit trading schemes.

Although fuel taxes are a practical means of curbing vehicular air pollution, congestion, and accidents in developing countries—all of which are typically major problems—they are often opposed on distributional grounds.

The authors analyze how price-based and quantity-based emissions regulations affect compliance incentives and social welfare with incomplete enforcement and technology adoption.

En Costa Rica los parques nacionales generan bienestar a las comunidades vecinas

Las organizaciones comunales de abastecimiento de agua y saneamiento en Costa Rica

La efectividad de una política de descentralización depende de muchos factores y no puede ser concebida como una panacea para solventar los problemas de provisión de agua potable en todos los contextos.

The general objective of the thesis is to analyze the political economy of the regulation of Costa Rica’s transport sector and identify the main opportunities and challenges in designing a more integrated regulatory approach for the sector.

Perhaps current prices of fossil fuels are the reflection of the hurricane's eye passing through the global markets. Before exorbitant oil prices again steal all the attention, it is important to analyze our policies on public and private transport management in general. And in particular fuel tax policies, which is here discussed by Francisco Alpizar, Rebecca Osakwe and Allen Blackman.

Equidad distributiva del impuesto a los combustibles en Costa Rica

by Francisco Alpizar, Rebecca Osakwe and Allen Blackman (Spanish only)