A bilateral declaration of the U.S.-France clean energy partnership was released

On May 22, 2024, the third high-level meeting of the U.S.-France Bilateral Clean Energy Partnership (the “Partnership”) was held in Paris, France, co-chaired by the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Department of State, the French Ministry of Economy, Finance and Industrial Sovereignty and Digital and the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs. The Partnership aims to address energy policy, technology and innovation that advances a set of zero-emission energy sources and systems, and to strengthen diplomatic efforts to support accelerating the energy transition and achieving climate goals.

The partnership came together a few weeks before the 1980s^vol anniversary of the D-Day landings along the Normandy coast, providing an opportunity to reflect on today’s energy security in a changing landscape.

On this occasion, the co-chairs highlighted the deep and enduring relationship between the United States and France on diplomatic and energy issues, which has enabled joint efforts to advance energy security. The Co-Chairs reaffirmed their countries’ continued commitment to Ukraine and its people and condemned Russia’s brutal and illegal, unjustified and unprovoked invasion, including its continued and recently intensified strikes targeting Ukraine’s critical energy infrastructure.

Additionally, the Co-Chairs reaffirmed their shared determination to work towards achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement, including by leveraging cutting-edge research and science to accelerate the development and responsible deployment of clean energy technologies, breakthrough innovations and policies that revitalize the energy sector and frontier clean industries.

The Co-Chairs reaffirmed that ensuring the efficiency, reliability and sustainability of energy systems, incorporating a greater share of renewable energy sources, increasing grid flexibility and long-term storage, and strengthening nuclear energy, which accounts for a significant share of today’s electricity production in both countries, is crucial to strengthening energy security and accelerating the clean energy transition to help achieve net zero emissions by 2050. In this context, the co-chairs discussed the energy transition in the United States, France and around the world. The two sides also discussed cooperation on critical minerals and critical raw materials (CRM) and their role in this transition, including by promoting diversified, responsible, resilient and secure supply chains, accelerating the implementation of the International Energy Agency (IEA) Critical Minerals Security Program, and leveraging the Conference on Critical Minerals and Materials (CCMM) and the Mineral Security Partnership (MSP) to accelerate cooperation. Both countries will continue bilateral discussions on minerals and critical raw materials.

The Co-Chairs welcomed the discussions since the last high-level meeting, in particular in the areas of carbon capture and storage (CCS), hydrogen and CRM. Recognizing opportunities for further discussions, as well as new areas of cooperation within the partnership, the Co-Chairs endorsed bilateral engagement focused on geological hydrogen, industrial decarbonization and electricity networks and flexibility.

Recognizing long-standing bilateral cooperation on civil nuclear energy – recognized by both countries as a clean/zero-emission energy source that can reduce dependence on fossil fuels to address the climate crisis and improve global energy security – the Co-Chairs expressed support for ongoing bilateral coordination on civilian projects nuclear and political discussions to support the development of nuclear energy around the world. In the spirit of the COP 28 Declaration on tripling global nuclear capacity by 2050, the co-chairs discussed work on the deployment of advanced civil nuclear technologies to achieve climate goals and work on cooperation with international financial institutions and regional development banks to encourage include nuclear energy in their organizations’ energy lending policies, where necessary. Additionally, the co-chairs welcomed the meetings of the Partnership’s Nuclear Energy Small Group to be held in Paris, France, in July 2023 and Washington, D.C. in March 2024. The co-chairs expressed leadership from a group of like-minded countries, including the United States, France, Canada , Japan and the United Kingdom, commonly known as “Sapporo 5”, to increase uranium enrichment and conversion capacity and establish a vibrant global uranium supply market free from Russian influence. In this context, the Co-Chairs welcomed the reaffirmation this year by all G7 Parties of their commitment to reduce dependence on civilian nuclear fuel and services from Russia, including promoting a robust fuel supply chain. The Co-Chairs also encouraged continued bilateral cooperation in research and development of advanced civil nuclear technologies, including next-generation reactors, advanced fuels and materials, as well as modeling and simulation.

The partnership meeting follows the IEA’s 50th anniversary and a ministerial meeting hosted by France, during which France and the United States joined other IEA members in reaffirming the IEA’s key role as both a leader in energy security and a leader in the zero energy transition net, following and together with its members, progress on COP28 energy commitments and the importance of IEA ministers unanimously welcoming discussions with India on IEA membership, which was also reflected separately in the statements of Presidents Macron and Biden. The Partnership meeting also follows the G7 meeting of climate, energy and environment ministers in Turin, during which G7 ministers committed, among other things, to increase system flexibility through demand response, grid strengthening and a new target for 1,500 GW of global energy storage by 2030, converting renewable energy into baseload power; to phase out existing, unreduced coal-fired power generation in our energy systems in the first half of the 2030s; and created a new G7 working group on fusion energy.