Fifth Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM5)
“Act Together, Think Creative”

On Monday morning, United States Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz welcomed delegates to the meeting and invited everyone to observe a moment of silence in memory of the loss of young lives in the recent sea ferry disaster.

Yoon Sang-jick, Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy, Republic of Korea, conveyed appreciation for the achievements of the CEM, and called for deepening efforts to accelerate technology innovation and deployment, engage the private sector to invest in green energy, and enhance market availability for clean energy technologies.

Moniz asked delegates to consider what should be the CEM’s focus areas in the future, noting that the meeting would discuss financing of clean energy, enhancing energy security as a "second track" of discussion, and expanding energy access.

Delegates heard addresses by: International Energy Agency Executive Director Maria van der Hoeven; Bloomberg New Energy Finance analyst Nathaniel Bullard; and President Ahn Nam-sung of the Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning.

In the late morning and afternoon, public-private roundtable discussions took place on: energy-efficient cooling and demand response; renewable energy for sustainable growth and employment; challenges and opportunities in energy storage systems; electric vehicle integration in power systems; facilitating access to low-cost capital to scale up renewables; and the relevance of the energy-water nexus for the CEM.

Concurrently, youth delegates took part in the first Model CEM. Following their discussions, young leaders recommended to delegates in plenary that all CEM countries should create communities of youth to disseminate information after CEM conferences; support research and collaboration among youth on renewable energies at the international and local levels; and deploy local renewable energies to support self-sufficient towns.

At the end of the day, award ceremonies recognized the achievements of companies that have created outstanding energy-efficient products, including LED lights, off-grid televisions and computer monitors.

Full web coverage available here: 12 May

On Tuesday, Ministers and senior officials met in a closed meeting to discuss clean energy, integration, energy efficiency and human capacity, and consider the CEM’s future areas of involvement.

Delegates heard a presentation by Greg Barker, Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change, United Kingdom, on innovative energy finance mechanisms for supporting clean energy deployment. Barker stressed that clean energy finance will be critical to achieving a strong international climate agreement, and will require more work to be done before the 21st Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP 21) scheduled for November 2015.

Following this, delegates held a discussion about the CEM’s areas of focus, and agreed to set up three new work streams on the energy-water nexus, market accessibility of clean energy products, and clean energy finance. They also agreed to encourage greater participation of women in the clean energy sector, through increased support of the CEM’s Clean Energy Education and Empowerment (C3E) women’s initiative.

A "PlugFest" organized by the CEM’s Global Lighting and Energy Access Partnership (Global LEAP) initiative, exhibited appliances and brought together off-grid engineers and energy professionals to discuss interoperability challenges and collaboration.

In closing remarks, Yoon Sang-jick, Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy, Republic of Korea, thanked everyone for their support and participation. On behalf of Mexico as the host of CEM6, Leonardo Beltrán Rodríguez, Undersecretary of Planning and Energy Transition, Ministry of Energy, Mexico, looked forward to welcoming delegates to Mexico City in 2015. The meeting closed at 1.30 pm.

At a press conference later in the afternoon with Undersecretary Rodríguez and Minister Yoon, Ernest Moniz, Secretary of Energy, US, emphasized that clean energy is vital to energy security, especially in view of recent political events in eastern Europe. He noted that clean energy will also be important in helping countries meet their commitments to mitigating climate change.

Full web coverage available here: 13 May