WASHINGTON, D.C. — In 2024, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of International Affairs (DOE IA) made monumental strides in advancing the global clean energy, climate, economic, and security goals of the Biden-Harris Administration. Through bilateral partnerships, multilateral negotiations, standing up a new office, and more, DOE IA has been hard at work to drive the international agenda of the United States, combat the climate crisis, lower energy costs for American families, and pave a path for America to lead the clean energy future.
Here are a few of our top accomplishments of 2024:
Ukraine & Fighting the Energy War with Russia
We provided critical high voltage energy equipment, new mobile generation assistance, and battery packs to essential workers in the Ministry of Energy in Ukraine. All total it will be over 1000 pieces of equipment since 2022, procured by IA in United States and sent to Ukraine. And that’s just the Department of Energy, not even counting equipment provided by our colleagues at USAID and the Department of State.
U.S. and Republic of Korea Civil Nuclear Agreement
DOE International Affairs, the National Nuclear Security Administration, and Office of the General Counsel worked throughout the year with their counterparts in the Republic of Korea (ROK) to solve a ten year old dispute over nuclear export control issues and in order to advance cooperation on civil nuclear energy, under the highest standards for nonproliferation, by finalizing a new U.S.-Korea Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Principles Concerning Nuclear Exports and Cooperation. In turn, the MOU helped to create a pathway for a Settlement Agreement between Westinghouse, Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO), and Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power (KHNP), dropping existing legal disputes and agreeing on principles for cooperation. The resulting combination will enable both countries, and their respective companies, to greatly advance the use of peaceful nuclear energy around the world, providing clean baseload power toward achieving global net zero greenhouse gas emissions, while creating hundreds of thousands of jobs.
Implementation of Poland Civil Nuclear Agreement
This year, the Polish government announced its intent to allocate 60 billion zloty as part of their selection of Westinghouse and Bechtel in 2022 to build the country’s first nuclear power plants. This contract, originally awarded in 2022 under the framework of a U.S.-Poland Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA), allowed Poland to decide first whether or not to use U.S. technology before considering other options.
This first phase of the project involves the construction of three units at a site in northeastern Poland which will create or sustain 62,500 jobs in the United States during the engineering, procurement, and construction period. In addition, there will be 2,000 jobs created or sustained through the provision of nuclear fuel to each plant. The second phase of three units will also create or sustain 62,500 jobs for a total of 135,000 well-paying jobs in the United States for the entire 6-unit project. These jobs are located in Pennsylvania as well as over 16 states plus the District of Columbia.
U.S. Leads Development of Landmark Global Energy Storage and Grids Pledge
Throughout 2024 DOE International Affairs and Department Leadership led a campaign to create momentum toward establishing a new collective global target of deploying 1,500 gigawatts of total energy storage by 2030, a more than six-fold increase over 2023, and adding or refurbishing 25 million kilometers of grids by the same year. Consensus was reached for these goals through the International Energy Agency Ministerial and G7 Leaders, and near consensus at G20 Leaders. DOE worked with the Azerbaijan COP29 Presidency to create a Global Energy Storage and Grids Pledge for the COP with the same goals, and Secretary Granholm announced U.S. endorsement at COP29 highlighting the durability of the U.S. industrial strategy to continue to deliver on storage benchmarks. The pledge has over 50 country signatories at last count. Increasing total energy storage and expanding and modernizing grids are essential to achieve the 2023 global pledge to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030, while transforming variable renewable energy into reliable, dispatchable baseload power.
U.S.-India Bilateral Partnerships
Under the revitalized U.S.-India Strategic Clean Energy Partnership (SCEP), aimed at accelerating deployment of innovative clean energy solutions to address climate change and enhance energy security, DOE launched the Renewable Energy Technology Action Platform (RETAP) in August 2023 to develop, scale, and deploy priority renewable and enabling technologies through R&D, pilots, and incubation-investment-industry networks to bring emerging clean tech to commercialization. In 2024 the U.S. and India continued to develop their collaboration under SCEP and RETAP during a trip to India by Deputy Secretary Turk last August.
U.S.-Brazil Energy Forum
The Secretary of Energy met with her counterpart, the Brazilian Minister of Mines and Energy, in October 2024 to expand our bilateral collaboration, launching a series of new deliverables. Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Julie Cerqueira chaired the meeting where the partners agreed to assess the technical and economic feasibility of bioenergy-to-hydrogen technologies, build a network of universities to develop a clean hydrogen curriculum, and collaborate on the launch of Clean Energy Hubs to demonstrate the potential of hydrogen and carbon capture projects. They also agreed to support the deployment of clean energy in remote communities in the Amazon as part of President Lula’s flagship initiative Energias de Amazonias, strengthened cooperation on carbon and methane management, and launched the Latin America and Caribbean Solar Decathalon.
Standing up RTES Office
In November 2024, the Deputy Secretary of Energy issued a memo outlining DOE's approach to Research, Technology, and Economic Security (RTES) risk in financial assistance and loan activities. The memo includes an overview of DOE’s goals, process, high-level risk factors, and commitment to mitigation.
In in FYs 2024 and 2025, the RTES Office conducted:
- 230 pre-publication solicitation reviews (FY24) and 25 so far in FY25
- 3,499 pre-selection application reviews (FY24) and 603 so far in FY25
- 650 project changes (FY24), and 125 so far in FY25
Expanding the Pool of IA Talent
In mid-2024, the volunteer-led Outreach and Engagement team began a pilot “roadshow” as part of IA’s efforts to broaden and improve the quality of the applicant pool for IA job openings. This included two information sessions, one with NNSA’s DEIA Working Group in July and another with the external organization, Black Professionals in International Affairs (BPIA). Both sessions had audiences of professionals with backgrounds in international affairs or energy policy with an interest in learning more about IA. The sessions focused on IA’s mission, the range of work our employees do on a regular basis, and the experiences of IA employee representatives on the panel sessions. The sessions were well-received, with several individuals reaching out for more information and to share that they were applying for IA vacancies after the events. Each session had around 70 participants.
The team has also partnered with BPIA and Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy to regularly share details of our IA vacancies to their members. Similarly, several individuals have reportedly applied for IA vacancies after learning about the positions through these partnerships. These digital partnerships allow IA to reach upwards of 1200 members from each organization.
Columbia River Treaty Negotiations
DOE led with interagency partners reaching the energy portions of an Agreement in Principle on a modernized Columbia River Treaty with Canada. This Agreement had been stuck in previous administrations, and is a vital milestone to conclude a modernized Treaty that will provide greater certainty of operations for the Bonneville Power Administration and retain additional supplies of carbon-free hydropower in the Pacific Northwest to the benefit of regional ratepayers while balancing needs from the Army Corps of Engineers, EPA, Interior and others on flood risk management and achieving broader environmental sustainability goals.
Mission Innovation and Clean Energy Ministerial
IA led efforts to launch all major ministerial deliverables at the 15th Clean Energy Ministerial and 9th Mission Innovation ministerial meetings, including a Call to Action for Power System Solutions to reach the global goal of tripling renewable energy production, the launch of a Gt by 2030 Campaign, and a new Implementing Inclusivity Framework to create a more equitable energy workforce. DOE IA also delivered the first-ever joint ministerial statement, developed a new strategic vision for the coalition to connect the world-class technical initiatives to the global climate agenda, and negotiated the agreement to move the MI Secretariat to the International Energy Agency, helping to resource the coalition to meet its full potential.
International Energy Earthshots
The Energy Earthshots are driving major innovation breakthroughs to solve the climate crisis. In 2024, IA led the effort to internationalize the program, recruiting international collaborators to accelerate progress on lynchpin clean energy technologies, including through recognition of the U.S. level of ambition, announcing a strategy and resources to develop these technologies, and agreeing to report publicly on an annual basis to share progress and lessons learned. The first international Energy Earthshot collaborators include:
- India – Hydrogen Shot
- Japan - Floating Offshore Wind Shot
- Australia – Long Duration Storage Shot
Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS)
IA’s Office of Foreign Investment and National Security has been hard at work this year. They:
- Conducted national security reviews of hundreds of foreign investment transactions filed with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS)
- Drafted, negotiated and executed binding agreements with transaction parties to mitigate national security risks
- Continued to rigorously monitor and enforce dozens of existing mitigation agreements with transaction parties
- Conducted over 18 engagements with foreign governments worldwide on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) screening. This included consulting with countries in the Western Hemisphere on standing up the first FDI review process in South America.
- Performed in-person visits to 10 countries meeting with a variety of stakeholders in FDI across public and private sectors
Sanctions on Russia’s Energy Sector
IA’s Office of Global Markets and Economics continued its work over the last three years with the White House to provide energy sector expertise to assist in sanctioning the Russian energy sector. Multiple sanctions packages, especially including the January 10th designations, have been effective in reducing Russia’s ability to produce and export oil and natural gas, which represent the largest source of Kremlin revenue.