Minister of Environment and Energy, Costa Rica
University of Costa Rica professor, cofounder of the project “State of the Nation” of the National Rectors Council of Costa Rica, founder of the Observatory for Development at the University of Costa Rica in 1997 and its Director until 2005. Dr. Espeleta was the Director of the School of Statistics of this University until August 2013 and the Director of the Graduate Program in Statistics until May 7, 2014. He was also coordinator of the project “Atlas de Desarrollo Humano Cantonal”, a joint initiative with UNDP. He has over 30 publications in national and international journals and a book about statistical methods. He has represented the country in different United Nations agencies and regional ministerial forums. Dr. Espeleta leaded the first two reports of the United Nations Environment Programme about the status of the environment in Latin America and the Caribbean, the first environmental report in Central America, the deck of environmental data for Latin America and the Caribbean, among many other activities. He also directed the National Environmental Strategy of Costa Rica in 2005 (A project developed by MINAE and IDB). His research areas of interest include sustainable development, development of indicators and index, human security, environmental change and public higher education.