Commission for Environmental Cooperation Announces Grant Recipients

The Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) has announced the 2019–2020 North American Partnership for Environmental Community Action (NAPECA) grant recipients, and Resilient Power Puerto Rico (RPPR) is among this year's awardees. All of the recipients received funding to assist with innovative, community-based projects that are addressing adaptation to extreme events.

RPPR received a grant to fund its Community Solar Hub Drive that will focus on the promotion and implementation of decentralized community solar systems in Puerto Rico's  municipalities of Utuado, Jayuya, Aibonito, Caguas, and San Juan. RPPR is one of two projects based in Puerto Rico to receive grants (the other being The Ocean Foundation). Collectively, both organizations received $354,255 in grants from the CEC for the purpose of adapting to extreme weather events and strengthening the resilience of communities to their devastating effects.  

“We are happy to have been selected by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation to recieve a grant to fund our Community Solar Hub Drive, said José Juan Terrasa Soler, RPPR's Executive Director and Secretary of the organization's Board of Directors. "This reaffirms our commitment to the vision of a Puerto Rico where all communities can have access to reliable and clean energy."

The CEC’s NAPECA grant program supports non-profit and nongovernmental entities in Canada, Mexico and the United States that work closely with local and indigenous communities to improve environmental conditions at the local level. The NAPECA selection committee chose eleven final projects from over 200 proposals. The selected projects meet the Council’s strategic objectives for this program to support model environmental initiatives that will help build long-term partnerships and promote a shared responsibility and stewardship for the environment. Each selected project includes: active community involvement, an emphasis on promoting partnerships, a sound implementation plan, and measurable objectives that can be achieved within the project life cycle.

“We are proud to support local entities across North America that are taking a novel approach to an urgent issue that affects us all. Action at the community level will complement the ongoing work on preparedness and resilience to extreme events that the CEC is undertaking at the trilateral level,“ said Richard Morgan, Executive Director, Commission for Environmental Cooperation.