2Sustain

Officials from 24 governments met in Washington, D.C. last week for the first-ever Clean Energy Ministerial, and they launched 11 initiatives to accelerate the global transition to clean energy.

In broad terms, these initiatives will:

• avoid the need to build more than 500 mid-sized power plants in the next 20 years,
• promote the rapid deployment of electric vehicles,
• support the growing global market for renewable energy and carbon capture technologies,
• bring solar lanterns or other improved energy services to more than 10 million people without access to grid electricity by 2015, and
• help encourage women to pursue careers in clean energy.

It was great to see the US taking a leadership position in these talks, specifically in terms of development of several initiatives that are part of what’s being called the “Global Energy Efficiency Challenge.”  These projects will cut energy waste around the world by deploying super-efficient appliances, improving industrial and building efficiency for large-scale facilities, implementing smart grid technologies, and helping to put millions of electric vehicles on the roads.

“The Clean Energy Ministerial has brought together leaders from around the world to take unprecedented actions to deploy clean energy technologies – from energy efficiency to renewable energy to smart grids to carbon capture.  These steps will promote economic growth, create jobs and cut greenhouse gas emissions,” says Secretary Chu.  “What we’ve seen here is that working together, we can accomplish more, faster, than working alone.”

More details about the initiatives launched at the Clean Energy Ministerial are available  in this Summary Fact Sheet.