IRENA

IRENA, the International Renewable Energy Agency, was officially founded at a conference in Bonn on 26 January 2009. A total of 75 countries signed the IRENA Statute at the conference and 61 countries have signed since then.

In June 2009, the signatories of IRENA designated Abu Dhabi as the headquarters of IRENA.
Besides, two regional offices will be established in Bonn and Vienna. Bonn will host IRENAs centre of technology and innovation and Vienna IRENAs liasion office for cooperation with other organisations active in the field of renewable energy.

The objective of IRENA is to ensure rapid and sustainable transition to renewable energy globally by offering practical help and support.

IRENA’s activities
IRENA’s activities will be determined in more detail in the near future, but the overall tasks will be to:

• establish a substantial knowledge database with a view to collecting knowledge and information about renewable energy, making this available to member states and communicating it to the public,
• give policy counseling to member states who request it, for example about national legislation, regulation, financing and strategy for increased use of renewable energy,
• promote technology transfer and investments in renewable energy,
• enhance the development of capacity in member states including identification of the need for training and education,
• support research projects, and
• cooperate with other organisations and networks concerned with renewable energy.