Environment: Puerto Rico Pledges "Carbon-free energy" by 2050

A report by Daniel Cusik for E&E News.

Puerto Rico has ambitious plans to transform its hurricane-battered electric grid to rely entirely on renewable energy by 2050.

The move is part of a multimillion-dollar program to reduce the U.S. territory’s carbon footprint and make it more climate resilient, Puerto Rican Gov. Ricardo Rosselló announced yesterday.

The clean energy goal is one of 10 measures included in the newly released plan dubbed the “Puerto Rico Pledge for Climate Change.”

Other measures involve taking steps to mitigate coastal erosion, including the planting of 500,000 trees in coastal habitats with hopes of reducing the effects of sea-level rise on shoreline communities, where most Puerto Ricans live and work.

“Puerto Rico is especially vulnerable to the effects of climate change due to its geographical location,” said Rosselló, 39, one of the nation’s youngest governors and a biochemical engineer with degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Michigan.

“When I was born, the city of San Juan could expect to have about 21 days per year at or above 90-degree heat. Today, the number of days at or above 90-degree heat is 104, a massive increase of 395 percent,” Rosselló added. “Climate change is not only real, it is the most important issue of our generation and it’s our responsibility to tackle it.”

The pledge also calls on Puerto Rico to initiate a major capital spending program on climate resilience and to adopt a new building code to help houses and buildings better withstand elevated temperatures, rising seas and stronger hurricanes.

More details about the pledge, including how its goals would be achieved, were not immediately available. A spokesman for the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration in Washington said a committee led by Secretary of Natural and Environmental Resources Tania Vázquez was developing a blueprint for implementation.

A spokeswoman for Jenniffer González-Colón, Puerto Rico’s delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives, said the Republican lawmaker was traveling in Europe and unavailable for comment.