Puerto Rico has a strong science base that produced extensive knowledge on climate change and sustainability long before Hurricane María. The Puerto Rico Climate Change Council has collected and synthesised scientific information for Puerto Rico since before its formation in 2009. Many Puerto Rican scientists were also editors and authors on Chapter 20: US Caribbean Region for 4th US National Climate Assessment . The National Institute of Island Energy and Sustainability  recently published a catalogue with more than 60 scientists and experts working on energy and sustainability innovations in the University of Puerto Rico  system. The scientific community became very active after the hurricane in efforts to empower local groups and communities to build more sustainable and resilient futures. UPR environmental health scientists worked with communities to design and implement risk reduction action plans, including NBS , through the Community Climate Actions Plans and the Puerto Rico Community Resiliency Initiative sponsored by Fundación Comunitaria de Puerto Rico and Education Development Center-Regional Education Laboratories, Northeast and Islands. A successful example of these alliances is the development of the first solar power community in Toro Negro, Puerto Rico. These initiatives were inspired by principles of human-centred design, a problem-solving approach that starts with the people impacted the most by the problem to be solved. In San Juan, the capital and major urban centre of the island, scientists from UPR and the US Forest Service International Institute of Tropical Forestry worked with local stakeholders and communities to develop sustainable and transformative urban futures with the support of the Urban Resilience to Extreme Events Sustainability Research Network . The UREx SRN is a knowledge network of 10 cities in the USA and Latin America and 20 other institutions building scientific knowledge, models and participatory tools to build resilience and transformative capacities for cities.
IPCC
Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability
IPCC Report