Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy

Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) announced today that the Clean Energy Buyers Association (CEBA) officially declared its participation in the Carbon Free Energy (CFE) Initiative. CEBA is the largest U.S. organization representing clean energy customers, consisting of over 400 members including global tech giants like Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Google.

On May 6 (local time) in Minnesota, U.S., the Carbon Free (CF) Alliance and CEBA entered a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for bilateral cooperation on the CFE Initiative. The MOU signing ceremony was held on the occasion of former IPCC chair and CF Alliance Chairman Hoesung Lee’s attending the CEBA Connect: 2025 Spring Summit, CEBA’s major annual event.

With the signing of the MOU, CEBA will represent the U.S. private sector in participating in the CFE Global Working Group and joining the CF Alliance’s efforts to establish global CFE certification standards including the definition and scope of carbon-free energy as well as measures for verifying and certifying carbon credit. CEBA’s participation expands the CFE Global Working Group’s membership to seven, in addition to Korea, Japan, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Czech Republic, International Energy Agency (IEA), and the Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM).

Based on this MOU, the CF Alliance and CEBA have agreed to closely cooperate across diverse areas with the aim of promoting the diffusion of carbon-free energy sources, through convening joint international conferences on an annual basis and engaging in technology and policy information exchanges.

The CFE Initiative has so far gained the support of major countries and organizations such as Japan, the UK, France, and IEA. In October last year, it launched the CFE Global Working Group in which international public and private experts are currently taking part. A number of organizations like the United Nations (UN), IEA, and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) have also expressed support, and consensus is growing across the international community on the need to harness various carbon-free energy sources.

Companies at home and abroad are in support of the CFE Initiative as well, based on the grounds of it being relatively more inclusive, cost-effective, and technology-neutral compared to other similar initiatives. It is also considered more business-friendly with respect to scalability in developing countries and its recognition of Scope 1 emission reduction.