He Committee of Experts and Advisors on Climate Change (Ceacc) experienced two resignations before the period established by law for the first partial renewal of the organization was completed, which has raised concern among active and former members about the continuity of the group’s work.
The first resignation was that of Roy Torbertwho specializes in global renewable energy, on April 12, 2023. Meanwhile, the most recent departure was that of the environmental researcher Pablo Mendez Lazaroeffective as of September 30, he himself confirmed, in an interview with The New Day.
“It is important (to know) what would happen to the continuity of the Committee”said Méndez Lázaro, nominated as a volunteer member – without pay – in 2019, by the then governor, Wanda Vazquez. The other nominees, at that time, were Torbert, the climatologist Rafael Mendez Tejedathe meteorologist Ada Monzónthe oceanographer Maritza Barreto and the ecologist Carl Soderberg.
The Ceacc, attached to the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources (DRNA), was created under the protection of the Puerto Rico Climate Change Mitigation, Adaptation and Resilience Act (Law 33-2019). His main duty – but not the only one – was to prepare the Mitigation, Adaptation and Resilience Plan to Climate Changeshelved in the Legislature since the last and last ordinary session of the quadrennium.
Law 33 provides that the first members “will hold office until 2025, the year in which the first partial renewal” of the organization takes place, with the replacement of two members, “who will be elected by the governor of Puerto Rico.” Then, in 2027, two other members must be renewed “among the remaining members of the first Committee.” In 2029, it is time to renew the two remaining members of the original group, “and so on every two years,” the statute adds.
In written statements shared with The New Daythe outgoing governor Pedro Pierluisi He maintained that the panel – which must be composed of nine members – “continues to operate with seven of its members.” Three are “ex officio”: the president of the University of Puerto Ricothe secretary – now acting – of the DRNA and the secretary of Economic Development and Trade.
“Our administration will continue to evaluate new candidates to fill existing vacancies”said Pierluisi.
The six private professionals who must make up the Ceacc need the advice and consent of the Senate and the House of Representativeshence Soderberg, also an engineer, said that we should wait for the results of the November elections so that it is the next governor who submits the appointments to the Legislature, “as soon as possible,” once he assumes the reins of the country in January.
“Those of us who remain do not have to leave, according to the law. (…) I understand that I must comply with the purpose of the law, of being in this continuity, and I understand that I can serve Puerto Rico effectively as a member of that Committee.”highlighted Soderberg, in a telephone interview.
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For his part, Méndez Lázaro recommended to the future new members of the panel of experts that they continue the Plan for Mitigation, Adaptation and Resilience to Climate Change, whose final version the Ceacc submitted in April to the Legislative Assembly, which chose not to evaluate it claiming that there was no time to discuss it.
“(They must provide) continuity, where we are, how they implement it, where they have taken it, what the next steps are. Because, once the Plan is approved, multiple other phases are missing, (such as) implementation; Afterwards, we have to review what worked and what didn’t work, how we modified it. There are many phases left, we are in stage number one. Therefore, I make the reservation that we have a long way to go.”, he noted.
He reiterated that the Legislature, at a minimum, must discuss the proposal in public hearings.
The Ceacc not only had the task of writing the Plan –of more than 700 pages–. The law that gave rise to its creation assigns almost twenty responsibilities to the panel, among them, evaluating the monitoring and implementation of climate policies.propose and support research projects linked to the climate changeoffer workshops on this threat and publish updated risk maps, public protection plans, relocation plans and evacuation of vulnerable areas.
The body has made a series of publications on multiple topics, including one with recommendations on the water resource in Puerto Rico and another to correct, mitigate and prevent the effects of climate change in the coastal area. Recently, published a study which warns that climate change would cost Puerto Rico more than $379,000 million by 2050 if action is not taken in time.
Mitigation, Adaptation and Resilience Plan to Climate Change