For over two decades, Costa Rica has banned oil and gas exploration and production. That ban runs until 2050, but it rests on a fragile legal foundation - a presidential moratorium. Any President can revoke it at the stroke of a pen, without the need for Parliament to agree.
Recognizing that fragility, the former government pledged to elevate the moratorium into law in its 2020 climate commitment under the interntional Paris Agreement to curb climate change.
One of Costa Rica’s most consequential climate policies, the ban has enabled a widespread adoption of renewables, which generate nearly 90 percent of the country’s electricity.But on November 14, during annual UN global climate talks, the government quietly deleted that commitment from its updated Nationally Determined Contribution.
Costa Rica has helped spark a global push to end fossil fuel production, co-founding the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance in 2021 and joining more than 80 countries calling for a fossil fuel phase-out at this year’s climate talks. From Belize in 2017 to Colombia in 2025, countries in the region are following Costa Rica’s steps by legally restricting oil and gas production. But real leadership demands coherence, and Costa Rica should match environmental diplomacy abroad with bold action at home.
The moratorium was first adopted in 2002, after decades of campaigning by environmental and human rights groups. From 1916 to 1988, foreign oil companies drilled more than two dozen exploratory wells across the country, finding no significant commercial deposits.
In the late 90s, the government granted an enormous concession of more than 10 percent of the nation’s territory for onshore and offshore oil and gas exploration to a joint venture along the Caribbean coast. The opposition from environmentalists, the community of Manzanillo, and the Bribri and Cabecar Indigenous Peoples was fierce.
In 2000, the Constitutional Court annulled onshore concessions after finding they were granted without adequate community consultation, breaching Indigenous Peoples’ right to free, prior, and informed consent. The environmental authority dealt a final blow to the project in 2002 when it rejected the offshore Environmental Impact Assessment after finding that it contained errors and omissions that could underplay risks to marine ecosystems and coastal communities. In late 2002, then-president Abel Pacheco signed a presidential decree banning oil and gas operations in the country.
Successive administrations in 2006 and 2011 tried to authorize oil and gas extraction, but sustained public opposition forced them to abandon the plans and renew the moratorium.
More recently, senior government authorities and business interests have signaled renewed interest in fossil fuel exploration and extraction. President Rodrigo Chaves Robles has repeatedly suggested opening the country to exploration. In 2023, the Costa Rica’s business federation publicly urged the government to legalize what it called “sustainable oil and gas extraction” by decree. Subsequently, the President sought cooperation from Norway to pursue oil and gas exploration. Civil society condemned the move and four former presidents publicly rejected it.
But in 2025, President Chaves again floated the possibility of carrying out oil and gas exploration in the country.
Hard-fought human rights victories are being challenged worldwide, and Costa Rica is no exception. Presidential decrees depend entirely on who sits in office and can be reversed on a whim. Laws require open debate and legislative consensus across the political spectrum, making their protections far more durable.
Efforts to protect the moratorium have also involved parliament. Thanks to tireless campaigning by the civil society coalition Drill Free Costa Rica, lawmakers have recently introduced three bills to transform the moratorium into law. Bill No. 23.579 - the closest to becoming law - would ban permits or concessions for oil and gas exploration or extraction anywhere in the country.
Lawmakers should secure this promise in law and pass Bill No. 23.579. The government should reinstate the commitment to its climate pledge and align its policy with its public statements at COP30. Anything less could irreparably undermine the rights of present and future generations and the country’s legacy as an environmental leader.
Costa Rica has shown the world that keeping oil and gas in the ground is possible. Now it’s Costa Rican lawmakers’ turn to make that commitment permanent.
..
José Daniel Rodríguez Orúe is the Kenneth Roth practitioner in residence at Human Rights Watch.
