Governor and France’s Minister for the Ecological Transition, Monique Barbut, signed a letter of intent in San Francisco launching a partnership to strengthen cooperation on clean energy, climate resilience and environmental protection, the governor’s office said Oct. 9, 2026.
The California Environmental Protection Agency will coordinate the state’s work and develop an action plan with the French ministry; the partnership frames exchanges among government experts, researchers and businesses to move technologies toward practical use.
Priority areas the release named include protecting communities from wildfire and extreme heat; boosting clean energy and strengthening electric grids, including exploring artificial intelligence’s effect on demand and grid modernization; advancing cleaner transportation, including high-speed rail; supporting climate-smart agriculture and nature-based solutions with a shared goal to conserve 30% of lands and coastal waters by 2030; and reducing pollution and waste.
The letter of intent calls for the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development and the Consulate General of France in San Francisco to promote public-private partnerships and researcher exchanges; the state said those connections are intended to help researchers and businesses find partners and move promising ideas toward market-ready use.
The release placed the new agreement in a decade of California’s international climate work and cited state clean-energy gains: since 2019 California added more than 37,000 megawatts of utility-scale clean and renewable energy and increased battery storage from under 700 megawatts to more than 21,000 megawatts; the release said 67% of retail electricity sales were from clean energy at the end of 2024, and clean energy met 100% of the state’s electricity needs for part of the day on 279 days last year and on more than nine out of 10 days in the first half of 2026.
“After another summer in which communities in both California and France faced severe climate impacts like extreme heat and wildfires, it is more important than ever to work with like-minded partners to fight climate change,” CalEPA Secretary said in the release.
Newsom said, "This partnership is about practical solutions and cooperation. It’s about protecting our communities from wildfire and extreme heat, strengthening our electric grids, and helping businesses bring cleaner technologies to market." French Minister Monique Barbut said, "The partnership we are signing today reflects our shared determination to respond to them concretely, by turning international commitments into action on the ground and by mobilizing states, regions, researchers and businesses."
State
Gavin Newsom
Governor · Democrat
Named 2 times in this story.
Portrait: Official portrait
State
Yana Garcia
Secretary for Environmental Protection
Named once in this story.
Sources & methodology
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