 Founding an International Renewable Energy Agency |
In January, 2009, Germany, together with Denmark and Spain, launched the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) in Bonn WHICH NOW HAS 137 MEMBERS. See www.irena.org.
IRENA is designed to spread the fruits of clean, safe sustainable energy to help protect the climate and assist developing countries to access these free, safe resources. It specifically precludes reliance on fossil, nuclear and inefficient traditional biomass energy. Since the world already has the International Atomic Energy Agency, established to promote the dangerous and toxic technology of nuclear power, and the International Energy Agency, founded during the oil crisis of the 1970s to manage the fossil fuel supply, IRENA could not have been more timely as the world wrestles with the twin crises of nuclear proliferation and climate change.
IRENA’s is designed to act as an engine to empower developing countries with the ability to access the free and abundant energy of the sun, wind, marine, and geothermal sources; would train, educate, and disseminate information about implementing sustainable energy programs; organize and enable the transfer of science and know-how of renewable energy technologies; and generally be responsible for helping the world make the critical transition to a sustainable energy future. At the founding meeting a statute laying out the terms for IRENA was adopted. View statute here.
TAKE ACTION! Is your country participating? If so, send them a note of thanks and ask how civil society in your nation can support efforts to empower IRENA. See the list of participating countries here. If your country has not joined IRENA, please contact your heads of states, environmental ministers and ask that your government be part of the solution.
To participate with the Abolition 2000 Sustainable Energy Working Group click here.