The UAE has become a founding member of a new international organisation devoted to renewable energy following a ceremony yesterday in Bonn, Germany. The group, known as the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), will be made up of at least 40 countries and promote the implementation of renewable energy projects around the world. Through Masdar, the Government's alternative energy investment firm, and a policy target to provide 7 per cent of Abu Dhabi's electricity-generating capacity from renewables by 2020, the nation has taken a significant stake in the global renewable energy industry, said Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, Minister of Foreign Affairs. "It is important that the world community works together to develop a consistent set of policies and frameworks that will encourage growth and rapid deployment on a large scale," Sheikh Abdullah said. "The UAE's contribution to IRENA will be to leverage our deep energy expertise and existing commitment to the sector." Masdar will serve as liaison to the organisation. The chief executive of Masdar, Sultan al Jaber, attended the signing and welcomed the establishment of IRENA, but said it would have to be more than a talk shop. "The Abu Dhabi leadership formed Masdar because they saw that the renewable-energy sector was suffering from fragmentation and a lack of willing partners focusing on the long-term goal," Mr al Jaber said. "IRENA is exactly what the world needs to drive forward the sector, but we must ensure that it is a place of action." The location of IRENA's headquarters has yet to be decided, but Abu Dhabi hopes it will be in Masdar City, the zero-carbon development being built at the edge of the capital. Nominations to host the headquarters will close at the end of April, with a decision from IRENA expected soon after that. IRENA will fill a similar role to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the Paris-based group that compiles data on both conventional and renewable energy, and advocates on behalf of energy-consuming nations. But IRENA will devote significantly more resources to compiling data on renewable energy than the IEA, which allocates only US$500,000 (Dh1.83 million) to the sector, according to Hans Jorgen Koch, the deputy state secretary at the Danish ministry of climate and energy, who was a former director at the IEA. "Only 2 per cent of the IEA budget is allocated to renewables," Mr Koch said at the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi last week. "The budget of IRENA will be something like 50 times as much as what is allocated to renewables at the IEA." The IEA's conservative forecasts had failed to accurately describe the strong growth of the renewable-energy sector, he said. "It is a fact that the IEA in a period of 10 years in a row has seriously underestimated the price of fossil fuels," he said. "That has led to a serious underestimation of the competitiveness of renewables in the same period." cstanton@thenational.ae Dolphin Energy cuts imports, b2