Ministers Meet to Advance Energy and Climate Partnership

At the April 2009 Fifth Summit of the Americas in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, leaders of the Western Hemisphere underscored that energy and climate change are among the most important issues confronting our future and reaffirmed their commitment to work together towards a clean energy future. Responding to these shared challenges; U.S. President Barack Obama invited all governments in the Western Hemisphere to join in an Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas (ECPA). ECPA is comprised of initiatives that focus on: energy efficiency, renewable energy, cleaner fossil fuels, energy poverty, and climate change, and infrastructure.

To underscore progress made under ECPA, U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu invited all energy ministers of the hemisphere to the Americas Energy and Climate Ministerial April 15-16, 2010 in Washington at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) on April 15, 2010, and at the Organization of American States (OAS) the following day.

The Ministerial brought together Ministers and delegations from across the Americas, representatives from 32 countries, as well as representatives from nearly 200 businesses and non-governmental organizations.

The first day consisted of meetings among representatives from governments, civil society, industry, academia, and international financial institutions. On the second day, energy ministers met at the OAS to continue these discussions and discuss ways forward. Both days served to explore possible initiatives in energy efficiency, renewable energy, cleaner fossil fuels, energy infrastructure and energy poverty. There was no formal declaration at the end of the closed session, but Ministers agreed to continue working together to consolidate and expand ECPA so that it can further contribute to governments’ efforts on Energy and Climate goals.

The ECPA will be a broad partnership of all the countries and institutions that choose to participate in the ECPA clearinghouse of initiatives, maintained by the OAS, and which will track progress and disseminate information. The Partnership will be based on this portfolio of initiatives that countries, members of the Joint Summit Working Group (JSWG), and other institutions are implementing.

More detailed information about ECPA, including the results of the Ministerial meeting, the initiatives clearinghouse, resources, news and other events, can be found on the ECPA website (www.ecpamericas.org). This website and the Ministerial meeting, are managed by the OAS Department of Sustainable Development in the Executive Secretariat for Integral Development (DSD/SEDI).

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