An energy technology company called BlocPower hopes to do for buildings on a large scale what Tesla is doing for automobiles. “You have to take fossil fuels out of the buildings, just like we have to take them out of cars,” said Donnel Baird, CEO of the Brooklyn, New York-based startup. “There’s just no way to deal with climate change otherwise.”

Last November, as an unusually active Atlantic hurricane season was coming to a close, two powerful storms brought death and devastation to several countries, most of them in Central America. Over the next few months, this newsletter will look at how some of the areas in the paths of Eta and Iota are faring. The first stop on this journey is a small Caribbean island called Providencia, part of Colombia’s Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina. Winds from Hurricane Iota—the first Category 5 hurricane to hit Colombia—began to slam into the island during the night of November 15, leveling structures, ripping off roofs, and knocking down concrete electric poles. With the recovery process now underway, the Colombian government wants to build back better and put the island on track toward zero emissions.