IRENA gets moving

After a wobbly start, the International Renewable Energy Agency adopted a budget and elected its first general-director at its first general assembly on Tuesday.

The minister of Foreign Affairs of the United Arab Emirates speaking at IRENA's general assembly.

Adnan Amin was elected Irena's first director-general. The Kenyan was previously director of the UN Chief Executives Board for Coordination. He originally took over the helm in November when he replaced Frenchwoman Hélène Pelosse, the interim director-general who announced last October that she would be stepping down after the first year of what could've been a four-year term (Renewables International reported). Amin is therefore now officially Director-General without the "interim."

Pelosse caused a commotion in diplomatic circles by publicly stating that the Arab countries were shutting her out as a woman, but she also complained that member states were withholding funding. Now, the funding at least seems to have been settled. The organization is to have a budget of just over 25 million US dollars for the first year. What sounds like a lot of money is comparatively little, as Greenpeace International's Climate Policy Advisor points out: the International Atomic Energy Agency has a "core annual budget" of 449 million US dollars, with "core budget" meaning that additional earmarked funds are also provided.

The General Assembly also confirmed that Abu Dhabi would be the site of the organization's headquarters, where 75 people will eventually be employed analyzing markets, policies, and technologies and offering consulting services to politicians.

149 countries are signatories to the organization, 69 of which have already ratified membership. Irena is closely associated with REN21 and the International Energy Agency (IEA).

Since its founding, Irena has been under scrutiny about its position on nuclear power (especially since someone from France, arguably the world's biggest nuclear proponents, was its original head when Pelosse went into office), but Amin reiterated on Tuesday Pelosse’s position that nuclear power does not fit the organization's definition of clean energy. (cm)