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).  Italy was represented by Carloalberto Giusti, President of RSE, Franco Cotana, CEO of RSE, Luciano Martini, Director of the Transmission and Distribution Technologies Department (TTD), who participated as Director of the Green Powered Future Mission (GPFM) and as Chair of the International Smart Grid Action Network (ISGAN), and Mattia Cabiati, TTD International Activities Coordinator and GPFM Pillar 2 Lead.

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’ – an event co-organised by ISGAN, 21st Century Power Partnership (21CPP) and GPFM. The event was opened by the highest representatives of CEM and MI, i.e. Head of CEM Secretariat (Jean-Francois Gagné) and Chair of the MI Steering Committee (Julie Cerqueira/ US DOE), who emphasised the achievements and stressed the 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 revolved around 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 energy 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” – an event organised entirely by RSE in its capacity as GPFM director. The event, opened by chinese Vice-minister Teng Long from the Ministry of Science And Technology and UK Climate Minister Kerry Mccarthy from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, offered the opportunity to showcase the latest progress of our Mission in the presence of institutional representatives and several coalition members. Among the main achievements presented during the event, it should be underlined 1) the publication of Factsheets gathering case studies from GPFM coalition members and illustrating the most innovative solutions and the remarkable achievements from ongoing national pilots and demos. 2) the launch of the new joint call module for international research and development projects aligned with the GPFM and 3) 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, 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’ – co-organised by GPFM and Urban Transitions Mission (UTM). During the event focused on energy communities and 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 subsequent 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.

RSE also had the opportunity to contribute to the joint event organised by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and Mission Innovation ‘How Mission Innovation can support the Global South’ on possible impacts of MI’s activities and possible collaborations between MI and countries in Africa and the Global South.

ISGAN-related engagements

In addition to GPFM engagements, Luciano Martini as ISGAN Chair has contributed to several events of particular relevance to power system transformation, including:

• 1 october – ‘“Status of Power System Transformation 2024: Where We’ve Been and Where We’re Going” organised by CEM’s 21CPP initiative. During the event, Luciano Martini was invited to moderate a high-level roundtable that featured speakers from the International Energy Agency (Paolo Frankl, IEA), International Renewable Energy Agency (Asami Miketa, IRENA), World Economic Forum (Roberto Bocca, WEF) and Long Duration Energy Storage Council (Julia Souder, LDES), who shared their thoughts on the power system transformation with regard to lessons learnt and successes achieved, but underlining the major challenges still to be faced. Following the roundtable, Luciano Martini and Doug Arent, Operating Agent of 21CPP, signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) ‘Innovative Power System Transformation Solutions’, which aims to strengthen the already fruitful collaboration between the two CEM initiatives and accelerate the development of innovative solutions to make energy systems more efficient, reliable and sustainable.
• 2 october – ISGAN Award ceremony on the theme ‘Flexibility for Grid Resilience’. During the ceremony, three relevant projects in the area of grid resilience were honoured and the key role of system flexibility in accelerating the decarbonisation of the energy sector was highlighted. As in previous years, the award-winning projects were identified through a highly competitive international selection process:
  • Winner: Korea Power Exchange
  • Runner-up: Ecole Centrale de Nantes
  • Honourable mention: Sumitomo Electric USA

Among the many key outcomes of the CEM15/MI-9 ministerial meeting, we mention:

• Approval of the Agenda for Action on Power System Solutions: i.e. The list of actions developed under the ISGAN, 21CPP and GPFM leadership with input from many CEM and MI initiatives operating in the energy sector, to enable the achievement of the commitments set out at COP28 in Dubai and in particular the tripling by 2030, of the current installed renewable capacity globally. The Agenda was presented, discussed and received full support from the Ministers of CEM and MI member Countries and endorsed during the Power Sector Roundtable.
• Synergies among global initiatives: the ISGAN-GPFM-21CPP event highlighted the importance of collaboration between CEM and MI initiatives to jointly address decarbonisation challenges and accelerate the energy transition.
• Focus on emerging Economies and developing Countries: MI and IRENA emphasised the importance of supporting developing countries in the energy transition through international cooperation to foster innovation and the deployment of sustainable technologies.

The CEM15/MI-9 ministerial meeting was an extremely important opportunity to discuss the challenges of energy transition and strengthen international cooperation. RSE, through its participation in various events and sessions, played a key role in promoting innovation and the dissemination of sustainable solutions for the energy system. Important activities carried out by RSE during the mission in Brazil included support and assistance from RSE top management to Minister MASE during G20 events and activities, and important interactions with international representatives.