Less than five years ago, Puerto Rico ranked first in the Global Climate Risk Index, an annual report that identifies the nations most affected by climate change. Puerto Rico’s vulnerability to this human-induced phenomenon is compounded by its colonial status since 1898, when the United States acquired the now-unincorporated territory as a prize of war after the Spanish-American War.
The archipelago, comprising 78 municipalities, is particularly exposed to the severe impacts of the climate crisis due to its geographic location in the Caribbean basin, explained Hector J. Jiménez González, director of the Puerto Rico Climate Office at the Mayagüez Campus of the University of Puerto Rico (UPR), the country’s most prestigious university.
Among the most tangible consequences of climate change are sea level rise, extreme heat waves, and intensified hurricanes, as well as landslides and flooding from increased rainfall, particularly in certain regions, Jiménez González explained.
The professor from UPR’s Department of Physics also warned that droughts in some municipalities might worsen in the coming decades.
“There are many threats around the world, but Puerto Rico faces unique challenges,” said Jiménez González.
In the past decade, Puerto Rico has been impacted by multiple weather events attributed to the climate crisis. For instance, Hurricane María in 2017 devastated the electrical grid with its strong winds; Hurricane Fiona in 2022 catastrophically flooded dozens of communities with heavy rains; and heat waves broke temperature records in nearly every municipality in 2023 and 2024.
The Committee of Experts and Advisors on Climate Change, established by an executive order from former Governor Wanda Vázquez Garced, developed a two-volume, 1,000-page master plan containing hundreds of strategies to address the climate crisis and its most severe effects in Puerto Rico. However, members of the transition committee for newly elected Governor Jennifer González Colón have expressed reservations about implementing the plan, citing the billions of dollars in public investment it would require.
Funding linked to U.S. political vision
Funding for climate adaptation and mitigation initiatives in Puerto Rico will depend on the positions of U.S. President-elect Donald J. Trump and Governor González Colón, according to Martha Quiñones Domínguez, an economist and environmental planning expert.
The U.S. president-elect has openly denied the existence of climate change.
Quiñones Domínguez, former president of the Puerto Rico Economists Association, noted that González Colón’s political ideology aligns with Trump’s. She warned that this alignment could jeopardise the use of millions in federal funds available to help Puerto Rico adapt to the climate crisis, especially after hurricanes and storms that have impacted the island over the past decade.
“The question starting in January will be how these policies of climate change denial will affect or benefit us in the future,” Quiñones Domínguez said.
Federal funds represent an opportunity for Puerto Rico, which lacks the capacity to negotiate and collaborate with other Caribbean island nations on coherent, integrated, and joint climate crisis responses because of its colonial status. The territory can´t benefit either from international monetary funds for developing countries or island nations to attend the ongoing climate crisis.
Imposed projects without community input
Beyond the economic impacts of Puerto Rico’s colonial status on climate adaptation, environmental sociologist and federal consultant Emmanuel Maldonado González highlighted the imposition of federal environmental projects that overlook local communities.
Maldonado González criticised the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, a government agency specialising in planning, constructing, and managing large infrastructure projects in Puerto Rico, which often leave significant environmental footprints.
“When you try to implement something without including the people, it makes no sense,” Maldonado González said.
Nevertheless, the environmental consultant commended nonprofit organisations and citizen groups for taking the initiative to develop projects and strategies to address the climate crisis in the short and long term. These grassroots efforts also aim to dismantle systemic obstacles created by the local government due to Puerto Rico’s colonial status, a sentiment echoed by Jiménez González and Quiñones Domínguez.
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This story was originally published by La Isla Oeste, with the support of the Caribbean Climate Justice Journalism Fellowship, which is a joint venture between Climate Tracker Caribbean and Open Society Foundations.
