CEM15/MI-9 Ministerial meeting 2024 in Foz do Iguaçu

The CEM15/MI-9 ministerial meeting took place in Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil from 30 September to 3 October 2024 with the participation of over 1000 delegates from the Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM) and Mission Innovation (MI) communities. The GPFM played a key role during CEM15/MI-9 and organised, along with other initiatives, a number of relevant events for international collaboration between global initiatives active in the power sector and its impact on climate issues.

1 October - ‘Power systems for a sustainable future: a joint CEM and MI framework for action’ - The event, co-organised by GPFM, the International Smart Grid Action Network (ISGAN), and the 21st Century Power Partnership (21CPP), was opened by the highest representatives of CEM and MI, i.e. Head of CEM Secretariat (Jean-Francois Gagné) and Chair of MI Steering Committee (Julie Cerqueira/ US DOE), who emphasised the achievements and stressed the urgent need to work together to effectively address the challenges of decarbonising power systems. During this event, the approach and objectives of the joint deliverable “CEM-MI Agenda for Action on Power Systems Solutions” were outlined. Following the presentations of some of the recent results from ISGAN, 21CPP and GPFM, the event culminated in a panel discussion involving the initiatives that contributed most to defining the content of the CEM-MI joint deliverable. This event laid the groundwork for the Power Sector Roundtable on the following 3 October, during which all Ministers and Heads of Delegation of CEM and MI members endorsed and gave their full support to this initiative.

2 October - “The MI GPFM demo approach to address power system’s most urgent innovation” - The event, fully dedicated to the GPFM, was opened by the Honourable Vice-minister Teng Long from the Ministry of Science and Technology (China) and the Honourable Minister for Climate Kerry McCarthy from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (UK), and it offered the opportunity to showcase the latest progress of our Mission in the presence of institutional representatives and several coalition members. During the event, the GPFM presented the following achievements
- the publication of Pillar-related Technical Factsheets gathering case studies from GPFM coalition members and illustrating the most innovative solutions and the remarkable achievements from ongoing national pilots and demos (Read more here);
- the launch of the new joint call module for international research and development projects aligned with the GPFM;
- the launch of the ‘GPFM Toolbox’ platform to support the dissemination activities of the mission for sharing knowledge, results and best practices.

The roundtable, moderated by GPFM Director Luciano Martini, was attended by high-level international experts, including representatives from the Spanish Ministry, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the African Union Development Agency (AUDA) and the Brazilian Smart Grid Latin American Forum, who discussed how to accelerate the decarbonisation of the energy system.

2 October - ‘Towards a net zero future: Securing green power to local energy communities’ – The event, co-organised by the GPFM and the Urban Transitions Mission (UTM), focused on energy communities and was opened by MI Steering Committee Vice-Chair Rosalinde Van Der Vlies (EC Director and next MI Chair). Luciano Martini, on behalf of the two missions, presented the first results of the joint activities, including the GPFM-UTM event organised at the Italian pavilion at COP28 in Dubai in December 2023 and a joint UTM-GPFM Urban Photovoltaic System Planning Project proposal. The panel discussion was dedicated to the need to implement innovative solutions to provide clean energy to isolated energy communities in the Brazilian and global context. Prominent Brazilian institutional representatives participated in the discussion, including Marcelo Camardelli (Deputy Secretary of State, State of Rio Grande do Sul), Axel Grael (Mayor of Niterói), Christiano Vieira da Silva (Operational Director of ONS - the National electricity system operator), Michele Almeida De Souza (Empresa de Pesquisa Energética) and Jane Cohen from the IEA (International Energy Agency). Finally, Eleanor Webster, Head of the MI secretariat, reiterated the importance of cooperation between the different missions to maximise the impact of innovation and to accelerate the deployment of innovative solutions.