Multinational

EERE plays a key role in a number of multinational energy relationships.

Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate Change (MEF)

President Obama launched the Major Economies Forum on March 28, 2009 to bring together the 17 largest CO2-emitting economies across the globe. These 17 economies include Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the European Union, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The purpose of the MEF is to advance concrete initiatives and joint ventures that increase the supply of clean energy, while cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

At the inaugural meeting of the forum in L'Aquila, Italy, member nations volunteered to lead the development of a series of plans that summarize the global potential of a range of clean energy technologies and provide a menu of specific actions that countries can take—both individually and collectively—to accelerate the global development and deployment of low-carbon solutions. The United States, represented by DOE and EERE, has released two Technology Action Plans for energy efficiency in industry and in buildings.

On July 19-20, 2010, U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu hosted the first-ever Clean Energy Ministerial in Washington, DC. This meeting brought together ministers and stakeholders from over 20 countries to increase collaboration on clean energy policies and programs and to advance the MEF Technology Action Plans through concrete initiatives. To learn more about outcomes from the meeting and new clean energy initiatives, visit the Clean Energy Ministerial website.

To learn more about the more information visit the Major Economies Forum website.

Climate Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Deployment Initiative (Climate REDI)

The Climate REDI program will accelerate deployment of renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies in developing countries – reducing greenhouse gas emissions, fighting energy poverty and improving public health for those who are highly vulnerable, particularly women and children.

Climate REDI promotes ongoing work to reduce poverty by national development agencies, multilateral development banks, and non-government organizations. The program acts as a platform for sharing information, and leverages the Major Economies Forum to transform international markets for low-carbon energy technologies promoted by the development community.

While it has potential for long-term transformation, Climate REDI is not a substitute for financing and technology mechanisms of an international agreement on energy and climate change. Instead, it is a quick-start initiative that complements existing bilateral and multilateral energy initiatives, rather than replacing these existing initiatives.

Climate REDI includes four scalable clean energy technology, financing and information programs:

The Solar and LED Energy Access Program will accelerate the deployment of affordable solar home systems and LED lanterns to those without access to electricity. This program will yield immediate economic and public health benefits by providing households with low-cost and quality-assured solar alternatives to more expensive and higher polluting sources of energy, like kerosene.
The Super-efficient Equipment and Appliance Deployment (SEAD) Initiative will work to improve efficiency for appliances traded throughout the world. A number of the countries have implemented, or are exploring, incentive programs for energy-efficient appliances. The initiative seeks to replicate, at global scale, the success of states like California in promoting energy efficiency in major appliances through incentives, labeling, and standards.
The OpenEI Clean Energy Information Platform builds upon efforts at DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to create bridges across the Major Economies Forum partners and other countries. The goal is to ensure that the forum's technical resources are easily accessible to support global efforts to limit climate change. The web-based platform facilitates an exchange of knowledge, technical resources, policy experience and the infrastructure to coordinate activities in deploying clean energy technologies, and to share this information with the world. Visit the OpenEI website to learn more about clean energy data and technical resources.
The Scaling-up Renewable Energy Program (S-REP), under the World Bank's Strategic Climate Fund, will provide policy support and technical assistance to low-income countries developing national renewable energy strategies and underwrite additional capital costs associated with renewable energy investments. Funding through Climate REDI will accelerate the launch of S-REP.

The International Partnership for Energy Development in Island Nations (EDIN)

Islands provide excellent opportunities to pursue high penetration energy efficiency and renewable energy deployment. Islands are almost entirely dependent on imported fossil fuels for their energy needs and consequently suffer from very high electricity costs. Meanwhile, these same islands often have abundant sources of renewable energy, such as solar, wind and geothermal energy. Lastly, islands are among the first to feel the effects of global climate change in the form of rising sea levels and more severe and frequent hurricanes. For these reasons Iceland, New Zealand and the United States founded EDIN in September 2008 to help islands across the globe adopt energy efficiency measures and deploy renewable energy technologies.

Under the EDIN banner, EERE is working with the U.S. Virgin Islands to achieve a 60% reduction in fossil fuel consumption by 2025 across all sectors. Currently, the U.S. Virgin Islands are totally dependent on fossil fuels for transportation and electricity generation.

For more information on the project in the U.S. Virgin Islands and other projects, visit the EDIN website.

International Energy Agency (IEA) Working Groups and Implementing Agreements

The IEA Implementing Agreements are mechanisms for pooling international resources to facilitate joint research, development, and deployment of clean energy technologies. EERE programs participate in numerous Implementing Agreements. As of June 2010, there are 42 Implementing Agreements existed. For more information go the IEA website.

The International Partnership for Energy Efficiency Cooperation (IPEEC)

The IPEEC provides global leadership on energy efficiency by identifying and facilitating the implementation by governments of policies and programs that yield high energy efficiency gains. Increasing efficiency in the production and use of energy will help achieve climate and energy goals, while minimizing the need to increase energy supply. The IPEEC currently includes 15 member countries.

The formal IPEEC organization is limited to a small Secretariat hosted at the International Energy Agency in Paris, France. Under the IPEEC, member countries voluntarily undertake and fund initiatives. Currently, IPEEC's program of work consists of six country-led projects and two projects to be undertaken by the IPEEC Secretariat. Non-IPEEC member countries and non-government organizations have the option to join each activity if approved by the lead Task Group country. The current projects include:

Worldwide Energy Efficiency Action through Capacity Building and Training, led by Italy
Sustainable Buildings Network, led by Germany
Assessment of Energy Efficiency Finance Mechanisms, led by India
Energy Management Action Network for Industrial Efficiency , led by Japan
Improving Policies through Energy Efficiency Indicators, led by France
Super-efficient Equipment and Appliance Deployment (SEAD) Initiative, led by the United States
Compilation and Summary of National Energy Efficiency Action Plans and Activities, led by the IPEEC Secretariat
Inventory and Review of Multilateral and Other International Energy Efficiency Initiatives, led by the IPEEC Secretariat

Visit the IPEEC website to learn more.

International Partnership for Geothermal Technology (IPGT)

The United States, Australia, and Iceland signed the IPGT Charter Agreement in August 2008 to accelerate the development of advanced geothermal technologies, including enhanced geothermal systems, or EGS, through international cooperation. The IPGT and its members facilitate and conduct research and development of cost-effective geothermal technologies, accelerate the availability of these technologies and work to identify and address wider issues relating to geothermal energy.

The IPGT opened an international dialogue between policy leaders, technical experts, industry representatives, and financial leaders that develops models to encourage large-scale integration of geothermal energy. EERE's Geothermal Technologies Program serves on the IPGT steering committee. Currently there are international working groups in six technical areas to advance geothermal technologies:

Lower cost drilling
Stimulation procedures
Zonal isolation and packers
Reservoir modeling
Exploration technologies
High-temperature tools

For more information, visit the IPGT website.

International Partnership for Hydrogen and Fuel Cells in the Economy (IPHE)

The IPHE, formerly known as the International Partnership for the Hydrogen Economy, recently expanded its focus to include fuel cells for stationary, portable, and material handling applications. The IPHE is an in-kind government partnership that facilitates international collaborative activities to enhance research, development, demonstration and deployment of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies. It provides a forum for the discussion and alignment of international policies, codes and standards, and safety measures that can accelerate the transition to a hydrogen economy. EERE's Office of Fuel Cell Technologies Program is the U.S. lead, and is highly involved in several activities in the IPHE.

For more information, visit the IPHE website.