International Renewable Energy Agency touts for more members

The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) could soon welcome some influential new members, according to the head of the Abu Dhabi-based agency.

The group, which celebrates its first anniversary later this month, last week welcomed the Czech Republic as the 139th signatory, and is expecting to sign up further members, potentially at a meeting next week.

The Agency's Preparatory Commission, which comprises all countries that signed the IRENA Statute, and acts as the main decision-making body until the entry into force of the Statute after 25 ratifications, is to meet in Abu Dhabi next week to finalise the body's plans for the next year and agree its budget. Eight countries have so far ratified the IRENA statute and others are preparing to do so, raising the prospect of the group being formally launched in the coming months.

Speaking to reporters ahead of the meeting, interim director general Helene Pelosse said that several non-member nations that may become future signatories are to attend next week, including Mexico, Belgium and Kyrgyzstan.

She added that China and Saudi Arabia would also attend as observers. Both the US and the UK attended the first meeting of IRENA last year under "observer status" before signing up to the agency and the attendance of the world's largest carbon emitter and largest oil producer at the latest meeting will raise hopes that they could yet join the group.

The next year is likely to prove crucial to the development of IRENA, which has been the subject of considerable controversy since it was launched last January.

The agency was founded by a group of about 50 countries and was set up as a direct response to frustration across the renewable energy industry that the existing International Energy Agency (IEA) was guilty of taking a pro-fossil fuels stance.

The challenge to the IEA's authority was criticised by some countries, although the group has steadily increased its member base.

However, despite its expansion, IRENA's first year of operation has been dogged by internal wrangling, which saw Abu Dhabi's Masdar clean tech development beat Germany in the race to host IRENA's headquarters and some countries privately criticise the appointment of French politician Pelosse amid fears she would push for nuclear energy to be included under the agency's remit.

The agency is now looking to put its lengthy gestation behind it and Pelosse said it had recently launched its first renewable energy project on the Pacific island of Tonga.