2025 CEM Senior Officials’ Meeting Key Takeaways
The annual Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM) Senior Officials’ Meeting was held in Seoul, South Korea on 9-11 April. Hosted by the Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy along with the Korea Energy Agency and the Korea Energy Economics Institute, the event brought together 280 participants from 24 member countries and many CEM partner organisations to discuss member priorities, workstream outputs for 2025, and pave the way for CEM16 in Busan, South Korea later this year.
The meeting provided a platform for members to reflect on the strategic direction of the CEM and maintain momentum as a leading implementation platform for the next 15 years and beyond. Here are a few key takeaways:
Members recognised the value of the CEM’s bottom-up, flexible, a la carte approach to keeping energy collaboration going amidst geopolitical uncertainty.
In a rapidly changing energy landscape and geopolitical environment, CEM members showed appreciation for the CEM as a bottom-up, member led platform that remains flexible and able to respond to the needs of each member. The CEM’s a la carte approach to participation is what makes the platform so well placed to maintain momentum and continue fostering international collaboration despite the current uncertain geopolitical landscape.
Discussions showed the value that the CEM’s portfolio of activities bring to the whole CEM community. Members appreciated how looking at the CEM’s work programme through sectoral narratives helps raise the impact of the CEM outputs to Minsters’ attention as well as the global energy community. Members also emphasized the need for the CEM work programme to continuously adapt to the evolving priorities and needs of its members, while identifying ways to strengthen and shape the future of CEM’s collaborative efforts.
Looking ahead, members left this year’s Senior Officials’ Meeting energised and ready to tackle their domestic and international energy priorities through their engagement with the CEM and its 24 workstreams. The CEM community’s ability to find common areas for collaboration to accelerate the energy transition is what makes this community so resilient.
We saw huge involvement and enthusiasm from the CEM community, elevating the CEM’s work and moving us forward.
The CEM community comprises an impressive range of diverse, dedicated stakeholders, from international organisations to the private sector, to philanthropies and clean energy NGOs. This community brings immense value to the CEM’s work through their involvement in CEM workstreams and their participation in the annual CEM Ministerial meeting and surrounding events. Hearing insights from the CEM members and the community on how we can continue aligning our work with global fora to serve as the implementation platform for clean energy priorities set out by COP, G7, and G20 presidencies will help us continue momentum for our work into the next 15 years and beyond.
We were also excited to formally begin new partnerships with ClimateWorks Foundation and Tara Climate Foundation, supporting the clean energy transition in Southeast Asia through capacity building and knowledge sharing on power sector transformation and accelerating a just and inclusive energy transition in the region.
We now have a strong vision for CEM16, the keystone moment of the year for the Clean Energy Ministerial.
This year’s meeting began and ended with a clear vision for the CEM16 from this year’s host, South Korea, and validation of that vision from CEM members. Under Korea’s leadership for this year’s Ministerial meeting, we are looking forward to maximising our impact through the co-location of CEM16 with the APEC Energy Ministerial and the World Climate Industry Expo in Busan. We’re looking forward to using this moment to strengthen relationships with APEC economies and industry leaders and to expand regional awareness of the CEM’s value as an implementation platform for the energy transition in these new fora.
We want to give a big thank you to South Korea for generously hosting this year’s Senior Officials’ Meeting and planning what is shaping up to be a very impactful programme this summer at CEM16 in Busan. We also want to extend our thanks to the entire CEM community for actively participating in our meeting in Seoul, helping us to define a clear path for CEM16 and the year ahead!