Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz joins energy officials from 22 other nations and the European Commission this week in San Francisco for the first Clean Energy Ministerial since the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in December. The ministers settled in yesterday with a day of closed meeting and will open up the meeting to the public today for keynote speeches, panel discussions, and fireside chats on clean energy deployment.
“These leaders represent countries that make up 75 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. The focus of these meetings will be to expand international collaboration in clean energy research, development, demonstration and deployment to combat climate change, drive economic growth, and help ensure energy security,” Moniz said of the meeting in a blog post.
Concurrent to the Clean Energy Ministerial is the first Mission Innovation Ministerial, which Moniz will also be joining. Mission Innovation, launched in December during COP21, is a public-private partnership consisting of the governments of Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States working in coordination with a private sector group led by Bill Gates. For their part, the governments involved have agreed to double their clean energy research and development funding.
