On July 19th and 20th in Washington, D.C., ministers from 24 governments participated in the first-ever Clean Energy Ministerial, launching 11 new initiatives to accelerate the global transition to clean energy. These initiatives will avoid the need to build more than 500 mid-sized power plants in the next 20 years, promote the rapid deployment of electric vehicles, support the growing global market for renewable energy and carbon capture technologies, bring solar lanterns or other improved energy services to more than 10 million people without access to grid electricity by 2015, and help encourage women to pursue careers in clean energy.