Agreement on Innovation Centre in Bonn signed
At its inaugural session in Abu Dhabi the Assembly of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) agreed on a working programme and the budget for 2011 with a total volume of 25 million US dollars. The election of Adnan Amin as Director General and the confirmation of Abu Dhabi as headquarters for the Secretariat have laid the foundations for a swift establishment of IRENA. State Secretary at the Federal Environment Ministry, Jürgen Becker took part in the conference. He commented: "Within a time span of just two years 149 states and the European Union signed the statutes and 69 states have already ratified them. This is a stunning success of the German initiative to establish IRENA and illustrates the huge support for IRENA and the call for the global development of renewable energies in general." At the signing of the Host Country Agreement, State Secretary Becker announced that Germany would support IRENA's Innovation and Technology Centre (IITC) in Bonn with more than 3 million US dollars.
In addition to funding and legal regulations, the Assembly also agreed on IRENA's work programme and the budget for 2011. IRENA, the first international organisation to focus exclusively on the issue of renewable energies, aims to advance the use of renewable energies worldwide. Its main work will be to advise its members on creating the right framework conditions to build competences and improve financing mechanisms and the transfer of technology and know-how for renewable energies. With a budget of 25 million US dollars and a future staff of 75, IRENA's task will be to analyse scenarios, potential and technology costs and provide policy advice. To this end IRENA will closely cooperate with other international organisations such as the International Energy Agency (IEA) and with networks such as REN 21.
Back to back with the IRENA Assembly the second Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM) took place in Abu Dhabi on 6 and 7 April. The German delegation was jointly headed by State Secretary Becker and the State Secretary at the Ministry of Economics Jochen Homann. The CEM process, launched by the United States, covers several initiatives on the global expansion of low-carbon technologies with presentations of their progress at annual conferences. Germany takes an active part in a multilateral working group on solar and wind energy which it heads together with Spain and Denmark.