Pretoria, South Africa — U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy Daniel Poneman and South African Minister of Energy Dipuo Peters held the second meeting of the U.S.–South Africa Bilateral Energy Dialogue on January 16.
The Dialogue, aimed at enhancing energy capacities and strengthening the U.S.–South Africa partnership on energy initiatives, built on the inaugural Dialogue launched by Poneman and Peters in April 2010 in Washington.
“The U.S.–South Africa Energy Dialogue is of strategic importance,” Poneman said. “We are seeking concrete results to transform our energy future to generate prosperity and enhance the security of all of our citizens. We also seek to continue our cooperation in peaceful nuclear uses while we work to minimize the threat of nuclear weapons.”
The second Dialogue reviewed joint efforts in the areas flagged for cooperation in 2010, including energy modeling, peaceful nuclear cooperation, renewable energy, energy efficiency, carbon capture and sequestration, and shale gas resources, while discussing new areas for cooperation.
Poneman congratulated South Africa on its leadership in hosting the U.N. climate conference in December and commended Peters for her leadership of the Clean Energy, Education and Empowerment Initiative under the international Clean Energy Ministerial.
Senior U.S. and South African officials developed a timeline to guide specific cooperative activities in the coming months, particularly in the areas of energy efficiency, smart grids, carbon capture and storage, and nuclear energy. South African officials from the Department of Energy, the South African Center for Carbon Capture and Storage, and the South African National Energy Research Institute plan to work with counterparts from the U.S. departments of Energy and State, the U.S. Trade and Development Agency and other U.S. agencies on the implementation of ideas shared in Pretoria.
The parties agreed on the importance of leveraging the South African Energy Dialogue to produce concrete results for the benefit of the citizens of both nations.
