Photo: Costa Rica from Above. BlindAmbitionBlog (flickr)

This week, Norway declared that it will become the world’s first carbon-neutral country, by 2030. It turns out that the idea of “going carbon-neutral” is becoming quite the fashion around the globe, though – and Norway might find more competition than it bargained for: In 2007, Costa Rica announced it's intention to become carbon neutral by 2021, the 200th birthday of the Central American country. If Costa Rica meets its goal, it will beat Norway to claim the title of first carbon neutral country.

Update: In the weeks since this was posted, the United Nations has launched the Climate Change Network, which aims to unite global responses to climate change. Since Norway announced its intention to go carbon-neutral, three more countries have made the same declaration: Iceland, New Zealand, and Monaco. A National Geographic News article posted in March figured that Costa Rica was most likely to win the race to carbon-neutrality, considering for example that 80 percent of that country’s energy comes from renewable resources already.