CEM12/MI-6 Chile

Clean Energy Ministerial 12 / Mission Innovation 6

The Clean Energy Ministerial was created in 2010 to encourage and facilitate the transition to a global clean energy economy. CEM members account for approximately 75% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Mission Innovation was launched in 2015, during the COP21, and focuses on innovation and technology for energy development.

The 12th Clean Energy Ministerial and the 6th Mission Innovation was held as a joint virtual event from May 31 to June 6, organized by the Chilean Ministry of Energy, with collaboration from GIZ. This is the first time the event is held by a South American country, a testimony to Chile’s commitment to the fight against the climate crisis.

The event brought together over 24 countries and the European Commission to share their progress in energy transition and the decarbonization of the global energy sector. This year’s edition saw the launch of the next phases for both initiatives: CEM 3.0 and MI 2.0. CEM12 aimed to promote three key aspects of clean energy: scale, sectors, and society, whilst MI-6 aimed to accelerate the deployment of clean energy technologies thanks to innovation in a global scale.

Besides the ministerial meetings, the week also counted with over 60 hours of side events and trigger talks; each one organized by different entities, where discussions ranging from how nuclear power could be used as a transitional energy source, to the role of youth in energy transition, were held.

One of these side events was organized by the energy cluster of the GIZ Chile and was titled "Innovative Conversion of Coal-fired Power Plants"; here, Mr. Rainer Schröer and our honoured guests, Mr. Michael Geyer and Mr. Hanno Balzer, talked about the characteristics and uses of the different thermal storage technologies, giving a second life to coal-fired power plants ahead of the coal phase-out needed to achieve the world’s climate goals.