ASSISTANT SECRETARY PYATT: The Inflation Reduction Act, [inaudible], which is our domestic legislation, it is about raising ambition in the United States. It is the most significant climate legislation in American history and the largest investment in clean energy that we have ever made. It positions the United States to meet President Biden’s goal of net zero no later than 2050 and getting halfway to that goal by the end of this decade.
The IRA is going to surge $369 billion over the next decade towards investments in clean energy and is going to stimulate even more because of the tax and other provisions which will drive private sector action. It is going to be a game-changer in terms of the US energy economy, but it is going to reap benefits for the world. The IRA is going to accelerate the deployment of renewables in the United States, but it’s also going to drive investment in innovation and that is going to directly help Southeast Asia to meet its climate goals because of the linkages between our economies and because of our intention with the innovation that we hope will emerge in the United States and the transatlantic environment will benefit us all.
In particular, and again, I’m willing to turn to my colleague from Germany Stefan (H.E. Stefan Wenzel, Parliamentary State Secretary) thank you for referring to the issue of clean technology and supply chains, whether electrolyzers or solar cells or critical minerals. Southeast Asia plays a critical role in that aspect of the international energy system, and we are confident that the demand which IRA is going to induce in the United States is going to extend throughout Southeast Asia, helping us to create and fortify resilient and trusted supply chains that will both drive our economy but also speed Southeast Asia and indeed the rest of the world’s energy transition.
IRA induced investment we expect is going to involve new investments to improve efficiency of battery technologies, for instance, will assist Thailand with its expected increase of electric vehicle adaptation and floating solar plus battery storage, areas where my team in the State Department in our Bureau of Energy Resources has been providing technical assistance working with our partners in Southeast Asia.
Similarly, our work with Malaysia on battery energy storage systems, and work of the U.S. Agency for International Development on clean energy infrastructure in the region as a whole is going to continue to lay the groundwork for new investment.
The United States hopes that our historic, and President Biden’s historic [inaudible], to prioritize the clean energy transition is going to inspire all of us to continue to think innovatively about how to spur clean energy uptake and raise ambition.
The clean energy transition is only going to happen when all of us does our part, and I’m very proud of the fact that my country is now making such a strong commitment both to our own transition in the United States but our partnership with the world. The G7, in the transatlantic context, in the context of ASEAN, and the very important relationships that we have across the Asia Pacific region.
So thank you again to IRENA for providing this venue, and thank you to all of our partners. It’s going to be so important to this historic transition and the opportunities it’s going to provide.