Seychelles joins International Renewable Energy Agency |22 June 2009

The country’s ambassador in France, Claude Morel, signed the Irena statutes during a ceremony at the German Federal Foreign Office in Berlin on Monday June 8.

Irena, a multilateral agency founded on January 26 this year, was created to help governments and private-sector industries worldwide to expand renewable energy use through the transfer of technology and to develop capacity building in that area.

This initiative stems from the growing concern worldwide that in order to cope better with the challenges of our times, such as increasing global energy demand, rising energy prices and global warming, more focus should be given to renewable energy.

Being the fifth Small Island Developing State to sign the convention, Seychelles took the opportunity to underscore the importance of the innovative economic, social and political institutional framework that Irena will provide in helping these states cut their energy bills and combat climate change.

Irena, working alongside other international bodies, will be mandated with the important task of urgently translating into action all the discourse on capacity building and technology transfer and harnessing the required support to raise resources to carry out such programmes.

The meeting of state parties to the convention will be held in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, on June 29 and 30, when it will be decided which city will host the secretariat of the convention.

An interim director general for Irena will also be elected during the meeting. Seychelles will be represented by Didier Dogley, principal secretary for environment.