New global voice for renewables

The new organisation has been set up because in the view of its backers, the existing World Energy Council is too heavily biased in favour of fossil fuels and nuclear energy.

A principal demand of the organisation is for the foundation of an International Agency for Renewable Energies (IRENA), set up by and funded by national governments. The WCRE says that it unacceptable that while there is a subsidised International Atomic Energy Agency, no similar institution exists for renewables. “Its creation needs the initiative of a government which has put into practice enough programmes for renewable energies to be considered a trustworthy authority,” it said.

It is hoped that the German Government will take the formal international initiative for an IRENA as is not only the second largest UN contributor, but also has “no significant” UN organisation based in its territory.

The Council is headed by a chairmen-committee of five members, one from each continent. Chairmen are: the Secretary General of the Global Coalition for Africa, Ahmedou Ould Abdallah, from Mauritania; Rakesh Bakshi, an Indian businessman working in the field of wind and solar systems; Peter Droege, Professor for Architecture at the University of Sydney, from Australia; the American, Michael Eckhart, founder of the Solar Bank, Washington; and Hermann Scheer, a German MP and president of the European Association for Renewable Energies, EUROSOLAR.

The body will regularly publish a World-Yearbook of Renewable Energies and, every two years, will organise a world conference on renewables.