ICEF2023 Statement from the Steering Committee
October 5, 2023
I. ICEF’s 10th Anniversary
The 2023 Innovation for Cool Earth Forum or ICEF celebrates its 10th anniversary.
Taking this memorable opportunity, the Steering Committee is issuing thefollowing special statement, looking back at the journey travelled collectively inthe past nine years and looking forward to the next decade.
1. What we have achieved since the ICEF inaugural annual meeting in 2014
 In 2014, ICEF was initiated by Japan’s late former Prime Minister Abe Shinzo,
who “proposed the establishment of a new international conference where theworld’s leading policy makers, businesspersons, and researchers can meet andcooperate with each other to address climate change through innovation”. Heparticipated in the first annual meeting, which, he stated, was “anunprecedented attempt, an energy- and environment-focused version of theWorld Economic Forum.” One of the early achievements of ICEF was helping shape the Paris Agreement,by highlighting the importance of innovation in the negotiations that led to thesuccess of COP21in 2015.
 In 2016, ICEF championed the ambitious goal of achieving “at least net-zero
anthropogenic CO2 emissions.” Since then, ICEF’s continuous advocacy forthis goal has contributed to many countries, sub-national entities andcompanies pledging to achieve net-zero emissions around the mid-century.
 Since its inception, ICEF’s consistent message has been that innovation, bothtechnological and social, is essential to addressing climate change. With thisbelief in mind, ICEF has elaborated on the roles of both the public and private
sectors. International cooperation has also become a central theme.
 Since 2017, ICEF’s strong creed has been that diversity, inclusiveness andjustice must be enhanced to address the social and governance aspects ofclimate change. At ICEF conferences, a balanced participation including youth
and women has been realized and led to multi-faceted discussions.
 ICEF has consistently adopted a technology-neutral approach todecarbonization, including discussion of renewables, sustainable nuclear
power, carbon capture and storage, and new end-use technologies across allsectors.
1 ICEF’s contributions also include the development of innovation roadmaps forclean energy technologies. Roadmaps on carbon utilization, direct air capture,carbon mineralization and low-carbon ammonia, among other topics, havehelped inform a wide range of stakeholders about technologies that can help
achieve net zero emissions. The term "biomass carbon removal and storage(BiCRS)" was first proposed in an ICEF roadmap and is now used widely.
 ICEF has been a unique forum for a wide range of stakeholders to interact andadvocate for innovation in addressing climate change. In Japan, ICEF has
attracted a series of other relevant international conferences on its margin, now
culminating as the “Tokyo GX Week.” As ICEF has evolved over the past nine years, the global situation surrounding
climate change has significantly changed. After the adoption of the Paris
Agreement in 2015, the IPCC Special Report on 1.5°C in 2018 created further
momentum for countries and regions to commit to net-zero around the midcentury. We have witnessed massive deployment of new technologies, mostnotably with renewables and electric vehicles. However a huge gap remains
between countries’ Nationally-Determined Contributions (NDCs) and the1.5°C pathway. Accelerated progress is needed to fill this gap.
2. What we need to advance the green transformation (GX) Under Japan’s presidency this year, the G7 leaders in Hiroshima agreed to“globally advance and promote a green transformation, working together torealize transformation of our economies”. Obviously agreement among the G7
is not necessarily a global consensus, but green transformation or GX is ourcommon challenge and shared opportunity.
 The G7 leaders are “commit(ted) to holistically addressing energy security, theclimate crisis, and geopolitical risks.” They also said, “While acknowledging
various pathways according to each country’s energy situation, industrial andsocial structures and geographical conditions, we highlight that these should
lead to our common goal of net-zero by 2050.” Such statements show the basic
and shared directions for us to pursue GX.
 To increase energy security and reduce the risk of adverse environmental
impacts from the energy transition, it is imperative to expand and diversify
supply chains for clean energy technologies and find substitutes for criticalminerals.
 Efforts by developed economies alone are far from sufficient. Strengthening
North-South international cooperation on topics including transfer oftechnologies and climate finance is essential.
23. Towards the future ICEF’s fundamental role and mission remain unchanged. We remain firmly
committed to promoting both technological and social innovation whilestrengthening diversity and inclusiveness. In the years ahead, our efforts will
be enhanced. As AR6 of IPCC pointed out, the choices and actions in thisdecade will have impacts now and for thousands of years to come. Moreurgently than ever, we need to accelerate scaling of solutions to tackle theclimate crisis in this critical decade.
 ICEF embraces new focal challenges, including accelerating deployment of thesolutions available today and continuing to innovate approaches for reducing
greenhouse gas emissions and removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
In doing so, ICEF underscores the importance of not only country perspectives
but also sectoral thinking, particularly on hard-to-abate sectors. In addition,
sustainable finance deserves stronger focus. The financial community needs tobe engaged more in scaling up deployment of clean energy technologies.
 ICEF is dedicated to developing new, diverse and secure supply chains forcritical materials, energy technologies and manufacturing.
 ICEF pays particular attention to increasing the scale and improving theeffectiveness of North-South collaboration to help the Global South thrive inthe energy transition and manage inevitable climate impacts.
 ICEF continues to empower the next generation of innovators to succeed inbringing new solutions to fruition by supporting those innovators to interact
directly with global leaders, access resources and reach new markets.
II. ICEF2023
Under the main theme of “Innovation for Just, Secure and Sustainable Global
Green Transformation (GX)”, the ICEF’s tenth annual meeting (ICEF2023) wasconvened in a hybrid format on October 4 and 5, 2023 as an initiative of the"Tokyo GX Week", when a series of 10 conferences discussed a wide range ofenergy and environmental issues. Around 1,700 people from governments,
international organizations, industry, and academia participated in this event,representing 79 countries and regions. At the conclusion of ICEF2023, the Steering
Committee summarizes a series of discussions as follows.
 ICEF2023 had in-depth discussions on innovative policy-making for building
secure and resilient supply chains of energy and resources. The need for cross3

border cooperation was identified and the interface of policy, technology,finance and innovation was discussed.
 ICEF2023 also discussed “GX together” where GX is pursued inclusively withno one left behind. Just transition was discussed from regional and socioeconomic perspectives, and the role of public and private blended financing
mechanisms were elaborated.
 Leading experts dealt with the following five specific issues:
 First, the Global Stocktake, a process to inform the Parties to UN
Framework Convention on Climate Change in updating and enhancing their
NDCs every five years under the Paris Agreement. The first Global
Stocktake will soon culminate at COP 28. ICEF2023 provided an excellent
opportunity to collect the views of the private sector and NGOs.
 Second, linkages between food, water, energy, and climate change.
Sustainable agriculture and food security in relation to water and soil, as
well as adaptation and resilience measures needed for addressing climatechange, were discussed.
 Third, the innovative and inclusive use of renewables. Topics included how
maximize benefits and minimize negative impacts on local communities,environments and ecosystems through synergies and co-benefits with the
17 UN Sustainable Development Goals. The role of developing economies
was emphasized.
 Fourth, sustainable aviation. Topics included forecasting sustainableaviation fuel (SAF) supply beyond 2050, identifying alternatives foraviation fuels and opportunities for improving propulsion system such ashydrogen electric powertrain.
 Fifth, nuclear fusion technology. Recent trends, including the role ofstartups and university spin-offs in developing promising technologies andattracting investment, were discussed.
 The ICEF Steering Committee expresses our deepest appreciation for the active
participation of speakers and audience at ICEF 2023 and at the previous nine
meetings. We remain firmly committed to engaging diverse stakeholders, inparticular leading youth, women and innovators, and thereby creating stronger
momentum for technological and social innovation for a carbon-neutral andsustainable future.

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