IRENA Showcases Sustainable Energy Future

The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) wrapped up a week of high-level meetings and deliberations in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday, further strengthening the international commitment to a sustainable energy future.

IRENA closed the fourth session of its Assembly, its ultimate decision-making body, on Sunday night (19 January). With over 1,000 delegates from 124 Members, 43 countries in accession, and more than 120 organisations, the Assembly brought world policy makers and renewable energy leaders to the UAE capital to map out possible pathways for the next two decades of the renewable energy transition.

Assembly deliberations focused on the transformative role of renewable energy worldwide, as well as the Agency’s 2014-2015 Work Programme. Ministerial-level discussions were held on topics such as scaling up regional investments in renewable power, while other sessions considered renewable energy financing, resource assessment and project planning.

On Monday (20 January), IRENA revealed key findings of REmap 2030, a roadmap for doubling the share of renewables in the global energy mix. Earlier (18 January), IRENA launched an enlarged version of the Global Atlas for Renewable Energy, a free online tool that helps policy makers and investors better understand the renewable energy resources at their disposal. The Agency also launched its Renewable Costing Alliance (19 January), which lets companies and organisations in the sector confidentially share real-world data on deployment costs.

In another key project to support real-world scale-up, IRENA announced USD 41 million worth of funding for innovative, transformative, and replicable renewable energy projects in developing countries through a joint facility with the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (19 January).

On the eve of the Assembly (17 January), energy ministers and delegates from 19 countries, along with development partners, endorsed the creation of an Africa Clean Energy Corridor, based on scaling-up renewable power generation combined with other energy sustainability initiatives along broad swathe of East and Southern Africa.

IRENA held several events alongside the World Future Energy Summit on 20-22 January, including the first international Renewable Energy Jobs Conference (21 January).

The week of high-level meetings concluded with an international workshop for mayors on the deployment of renewables in cities, as well as a presentation on IRENA’s future sustainable headquarters, due to open later this year in the Abu Dhabi clean-tech hub, Masdar City.