Good morning. Thank you, Secretary Granholm, for the introduction.

It is a pleasure to be here with so many stakeholders of the Net Zero World Initiative. I would like to thank Secretary Granholm and the Department of Energy for partnering with the Department of Commerce on this important forum, as well as the U.S. companies, partner country officials, U.S. National Laboratories, and representatives from across the U.S. government for being here today.

I also want to thank Deputy Special Presidential Envoy for Climate Rick Duke and Ukrainian Ambassador Oksana Markarova for joining today’s event.

As President Biden highlighted at COP27 last month, this Administration has made huge strides toward putting the United States on track to achieving our Paris Agreement goal of reducing emissions by 50 to 52 percent by 2030 compared to 2005 levels.

To meet this target, we will depend heavily on the innovation and dynamism of our private sector – the American companies, small and large– many of whom are represented here today –that will develop and deploy cutting-edge technologies to decarbonize every facet of our economy.

As we are all aware, our decarbonization efforts are not happening in a vacuum.  The climate crisis is a global challenge that requires partnerships with countries around the world, including developing countries. 

The Net Zero World Initiative—the focus of today’s forum—is a key mechanism of the Biden-Harris Administration to work across borders in concert with key partners to tackle the climate crisis and capitalize on the immense global opportunity presented by the clean energy transition.

Through our collaboration with the eight partner countries of Net Zero World, we are working together to implement highly tailored and actionable technical and investment strategies to accelerate energy sector decarbonization. Net Zero World also understands that international cooperation on the clean energy transition can’t succeed through government-to-government cooperation alone. It’s going to require the input and engagement of the industry stakeholders that provide the cutting-edge technologies needed to make the net zero transition a reality.

Just as they are key to our climate work here in the United States, U.S. businesses are partners of choice for countries around the world pursuing ambitious climate and clean energy transition goals.  And that’s why they should feature prominently on Net Zero World as well as other Administration priorities such as climate-related projects supported by the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment and the Clean Economy Pillar of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity. These efforts are a source of unprecedented opportunity, as the global transition to net zero emissions will require potentially trillions of dollars of investment over the course of the coming several decades. In countries and key regions around the world, the U.S. private sector is a partner of choice in effecting the clean energy transition.

This transition also means that we need to continue innovating and bringing new clean technologies to market, strengthening our supply chains to produce these critical products, and ramping up production to meet the large and growing demand for clean tech goods and services around the world.

That’s why the Department of Commerce’s efforts to support U.S. businesses and workers through exports includes the U.S. Clean Tech Export Competitiveness Strategy, which the International Trade Administration recently launched.

Under this initiative, we have engaged in strategic efforts to enhance opportunities and address challenges facing exporters of climate solutions in areas that include enhancing advocacy for U.S. companies, increasing our international engagement on clean tech standards and intellectual property protection, and developing targeted trade missions and trade events.

Over the past year, our export promotion and advocacy efforts have facilitated U.S. company participation in more than $3.2 billion dollars in climate and clean tech projects abroad.

To put a finer point on it, the experience, expertise, and innovative solutions offered by U.S. clean tech companies, I believe, will play a critical role in the success of Net Zero World partnerships, which is why we have invited you here today to this industry forum. Throughout the day, you will hear from partner country and U.S. government officials about key needs and opportunities for private sector engagement in clean technology areas highlighted by Net Zero World.

And in today’s breakout discussions, we look forward to hearing from you on your ideas for how to advance the work of Net Zero World in collaboration with industry and how the U.S. government and partner countries can best address challenges and barriers to clean tech deployment in order to accelerate the implementation of vital decarbonization projects.

I look forward to seeing the great things we achieve through the exciting international collaborations fostered by Net Zero World between the industries and governments of the United States and our partner countries.

With that, I would like to welcome the Department of Energy’s Assistant Secretary for International Affairs, Andrew Light, who will provide a deeper introduction to Net Zero World.