In Cosa Rica, every quarter, four extreme weather events are recorded, such as storms, hurricanes and droughts.
These phenomena linked to climate change are generating a direct impact on the Costa Rican Public Treasury, according the Comptroller General of the Republic (CGR).
A recent report highlights that in 2010, the country had to invest 1.03% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in replacing damage structures due to floods, storms and droughts.
The main concern is that in each quarter of the period studied by the CGR, the cost of recovery increased by 3%.
Another factor to take into account is that the frequency and duration of the country’s extreme hydrometeorological and climatic phenomena have increased. For example, while in 1992 a disaster extended for 39 days, in 2002 the duration was 76 days.
The numbers are not encouraging when we think about the development of Costa Rica and economic growth,”
reports the CGR.
This problem affects the short-term national budgets, the balances of external accounts and the most vulnerable populations. In the long term, they affect production systems such as agriculture and tourism.
In the best scenario, and taking into account the growth of extreme weather events, by 2025 the country should invest 1.05% of GDP in the recovery. In the worst case, the investment must be 2.5%.