Envision a country with electric transportation, both public and private. That’s all it would take to make Costa Rica cut its dependence on fossil fuels, with its already nearly total production of green electricity.

Sound like a tall order? Monica Araya says that though she comes from a small country, she likes to dream big.

The Yale-educated conservationist has turned her efforts over recent years to pushing a fossil-fule-free vision of Costa Rica.

To promote this vision, she founder the non-profit, Costa Rica Limpia, whose mission is “to promote clean development from a citizen perspective.”

Araya believes to move towards a greener, carbon-neutral country, what is needed is grassroots education, to translate the climate change jargon into understandable terms, and real life solutions, as she discussed in a recent interview with the Costa Rica business magazine, Estrategias y Negocios.

Costa Rica Limpia works to “monitor, analyze and drive urban development proposals that are low in emissions, climate resilient and friendly to people. We raise awareness, we seek alliances  and monitor compliance with pledges – in elections and international negotiations – in renewable energy, public transport and climate change.”

A recent activity, the country’s first Citizen Electric Mobility Festival, was a concrete action taken by Araya’s initiative to stimulate alternatives to fossil-file based transportation.

 

“I focus a lot on communicating, translating, inspiring… My goal is to do everything possible so that politicians and companies focus on electrification of transportation to accelerate the transition to vehicles that do not use gasoline, but electricity from renewable sources,” she said in the interview.

A pivotal moment in her career as an environmental activist was her master’s studies in economics at the National University, and then doctoral studies in environmental management at Yale, which she undertook with support by the Avina Foundation.

The two organizations she has founded Costa Rica Limpia, working on the national level, and Nivela, which works internationally on the same issues are directed by women.

“I had almost no female mentors, and that inspired me to want to be a mentor to others,” added the 45-year old Araya.