California is moving forward with its efforts to create a clean, reliable, and affordable energy system. The state faces many of the same challenges as other regions worldwide, including extreme weather events and increasing demand from electric vehicles and the growth of artificial intelligence.
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has been working toward ambitious energy transition goals by collaborating with international partners. Through memorandums of understanding and direct engagement with delegations from other countries, the CPUC has participated in two-way exchanges on strategies for grid reliability, clean energy deployment, and protecting ratepayers.
In 2025, the CPUC held discussions with several international delegations:
– A delegation from Australia’s Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment, and Water visited to discuss investment in renewable generation and storage.
– Representatives from China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment met with CPUC officials to talk about scaling infrastructure for vehicle electrification and reducing transportation emissions.
– Staff from Denmark’s Danish Energy Agency worked with the CPUC, California Energy Commission (CEC), and California Air Resources Board (CARB) on topics such as offshore wind development, building decarbonization, demand flexibility, and transforming data centers into partners for affordable decarbonization.
– A roundtable discussion was held with a delegation from India focusing on battery storage strategies across manufacturing, procurement, and deployment.
According to the CPUC, these meetings highlighted that jurisdictions around the world are dealing with similar issues: balancing decarbonization goals with reliability, resilience, and affordability under increasing climate stress.
Drew Hodel, Senior Advisor on Intergovernmental Affairs at the CPUC, commented on these international exchanges. “A major focus for the CPUC last year was ratepayer affordability,” he said. “And what stood out in our conversations with global partners was how similar their challenges are to ours, from climate-driven grid stress to rising costs.”
Beyond bilateral meetings, the CPUC also took part in broader forums. In May 2025 in San Francisco, it joined regulators from Australia, Denmark, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom at the International Regulatory Futures Forum to discuss topics like investing in climate resilience and optimizing electricity systems for cost efficiency.
Later that year at COP30—the United Nations’ annual global climate conference—the CPUC joined a California delegation led by Governor Newsom. There they shared regulatory lessons learned during California’s clean energy transition.
California has reported progress over recent years:
– Since 2000 greenhouse gas emissions have dropped by 21 percent while economic output grew by 81 percent.
– Emissions in the electric sector have fallen by more than 40 percent thanks in part to nearly 17 gigawatts of battery storage capacity and three years of record renewable energy buildout.
– In 2025 alone California’s grid operated on entirely clean power for an average of nearly six hours per day—a significant increase since 2022.
– If ranked as a country based on electric vehicle sales alone, California would be fourth globally behind China, the United States as a whole, and Germany.
Through ongoing collaboration both locally and internationally,the CPUC aims to strengthen responses to climate change while bringing back solutions that can be applied within California.
