Hello, everyone! I’m so pleased to be here at the very first US Caribbean Meeting on Extreme Heat – organized by the Caribbean Climate Adaptation Network, one of 13 NOAA CAP/RISA teams and co-sponsored by the National Science Foundation.

I’d like to take a moment to recognize Dr. Pablo Mendez-Lazaro, Lead of the Caribbean Climate Adaptation Network, for chairing this summit, as well as Dr. Zheng O'Neill and Dr. Jorge González from the National Science Foundation for their supportive work.

It’s wonderful to also have representatives from other NOAA entities here, like the National Weather Service and the NOAA Sea Grant, and also our institutional partners over at the University of Puerto Rico.

I have the privilege of serving as President Biden’s Puerto Rico Economic Growth Coordinator – a role that has allowed me to see the work being accomplished in the archipelago’s recovery, charting a new course toward the economic prosperity all Puerto Ricans deserve.

CCAN takes a human-centered approach toward addressing the risks posed by climate variability and climate change in both Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands, and supporting local solutions.

Their team works directly and collaboratively with local decision makers and community stakeholders, allowing those partners to identify the important issues and develop the questions that will help guide their shared efforts. The topic of heat is just one of the issues that they address in the U.S. Caribbean, but its importance cannot be overstated.

Temperatures are rapidly increasing worldwide, including the Caribbean region, due to human-induced climate change. Heat and humidity are reaching dangerous levels, which could mean an increased danger of heat stress on local populations .

CCAN’s efforts to better understand and address extreme heat in the U.S. Caribbean represent an important contribution to furthering heat mitigation and adaptation success. More attention is needed at the local and regional level to support ongoing efforts, and that’s what makes this summit so timely.

This gathering will allow for idea-sharing, partnership building, and the creation of impactful solutions to advance heat risk mitigation and adaptation in the Caribbean. We will not only address heat stress in the US Caribbean and provide guidance for heat related policies in the region, equitable climate adaptation strategies and actions, but we will also shed light on the heat and learning environments, with participation from the broader region.

Over at the Department of Commerce, our National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is hard at work to better understand the impact of extreme heat on our climate. This includes, among other efforts, their Climate Adaptation Partnerships/Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments Program.

The CAP/RISA Program exists to advance equitable adaptation through sustained regional research and community engagement, through supporting a network of 13 regional teams through 5-year cooperative agreements in multi-state regions across the United States. Teams are composed of researchers, specialists, and community partners covering several institutions and organizations across the region.

The approach of the program in these regions has always been moving from the bottom up, where topics and project focuses are determined through on-the-ground community engagement to determine what is needed in the specific region covered.

CAP/RISA teams work across a diverse range of sectors and with urban and rural communities, and local, state, and Tribal governments, on their cross-sectoral climate adaptation needs – including extreme heat.

CAP/RISA funded projects on extreme heat have contributed to heat mitigation, adaptation, planning, and decision making efforts; and vulnerability studies on heat and human health, urban heat island, green infrastructure, indoor temperature exposure, and heat-related mortality.

Projects also examine potential complex, compound stressors that could exacerbate the impacts of extreme heat, or could present challenging decision-making contexts when considering the best pathways for adaptation.

And this work is already well underway.

One cross-regional project funded through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is currently exploring how extreme heat interacts with wildfire smoke, and how these compounding stressors influence household cooling decisions.

Our work over at NOAA and the Commerce Department on extreme heat is a top priority as we seek new and innovative strategies to tackle the climate crisis head-on, and as heat becomes an increasingly important topic for the U.S. Caribbean region – and local government and community members are more aware of the importance of managing heat risk than ever before – our understanding is that there is yet to be targeted funding for heat risk mitigation in PR/USVI from local government.

We want to change that. Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands must always be a part of the solution to our climate concerns in the Caribbean, and we look forward to working and partnering in the coming days, weeks, and months to seeing our goals through.