Energy Minister Victor Parlicov met on Monday with two assistant secretaries in the US Department of Energy, Andrew Light, responsible for international relations, and Kathryn Huff, responsible, among other things, for the nuclear agenda.

The discussions explored opportunities for cooperation on decarbonization, with the Republic of Moldova committing, along with EU member countries, to become greenhouse gas neutral by 2050. This means that the country's net CO2 emissions will be zero, with the energy sector having the greatest potential to reduce GHG emissions.

In this context, the Minister of Energy thanked for the inclusion of the Republic of Moldova in the Net Zero World Program and reviewed the priorities set in this area and the opportunities for cooperation. The Net Zero World Initiative supports countries that are committed to increasing their climate ambitions by developing individual clean energy development and investment mobilization strategies to achieve the net-zero goal, thereby leveraging the expertise of various US government agencies and US Department of Energy national laboratories

Also discussed was U.S. support to strengthening the cybersecurity of the energy sector in the Republic of Moldova, with instructors from the Department of Energy's laboratories being involved in recent training in Chisinau for key energy sector actors, including NATO exercises. These exercises highlighted several issues to be addressed in the future and the parties agreed to continue cooperation in this segment.

In addition, on the nuclear energy portfolio, the need for Moldova's accession to a number of international conventions was discussed, given the geographical proximity of several nuclear power plants in neighboring countries. This concerns in particular the Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage (SCC), which currently has 11 contracting parties, in addition to the Convention on Early Notification of a Nuclear Accident, to which the Republic of Moldova has already acceded.