Roundtable: Promoting collaboration among multilateral initiatives for energy innovation

International co-operation has a critical role to play in tackling the many global challenges associated with clean energy transitions. In the area of energy technology innovation, multilateral platforms can distribute the cost of innovation across many actors, facilitate exchange of ideas between sectors and across borders, enable exchange of good practice among policy makers, and support market uptake.

In many technology areas, multilateral platforms are already working to accelerate innovation and deployment of clean energy technologies. Within the framework of the IEA, the Technology Collaboration Programmes (TCPs) provide a platform for governments to work together to advance research, development, demonstration and commercialisation of energy technologies. As of 2021, there are 38 active TCPs, each focusing on specific energy technology areas. There are several other multilateral initiatives with which the IEA works closely, including the Clean Energy Ministerial and Mission Innovation. Governments have an incentive to promote coordination between the multilateral initiatives they are involved in.

In collaboration with the IEA’s Committee on Energy Research and Technology (CERT), the IEA hosted a roundtable discussion with government representatives to share strategies to encourage collaboration among existing multilateral initiatives and to exchange good practice approaches on coordination when starting new initiatives. The discussions informed the preparation of new IEA analysis for publication on this topic.

The organisation of this event was supported by the Clean Energy Transitions in Emerging Economies programme, which received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 952363.