UAE | Environment
Hopes run high for UAE lobbying to win Irena
Voting to be held tomorrow to decide on agency's headquarters.
- By Abbas Al Lawati Staff Reporter
- Published: 22:43 June 27, 2009
- Image Credit: Abbas Al Lawati/Gulf News
- A poster promoting the UAE's bid to host the International Renewable Energy Agency greets passengers arriving at Sharm Al Shaikh International Airport in Egypt.
Dubai: With one day to go for the 110-member countries of the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena) to vote on the location of the agency's headquarters, expectations are high that the UAE's tireless lobbying for the project will pay off.
The 110 countries will vote on Monday at Sharm Al Shaikh in Egypt to decide which country will host the agency.
The UAE has managed to gather support of a number of countries, more importantly some Western allies of its main rival Germany.
A Western diplomat in the UAE said that the UAE is expected to get at least 55 votes. While the UAE has offered Irena Dh80 million a year for the next six years, Bonn is said to have offered Dh15 million a year. The UAE is also offering to build the headquarters in the carbon neutral Masdar City.
But an observer close to the UAE's lobbying efforts says that despite the UAE's offers, Germany still stands a good chance because of its experience in renewable energy production.
The UAE's keenness to move towards alternative energy sources is due to pragmatic considerations.
The country's energy consumption is expected to rise by more than 160 per cent by 2020, at a rate of nine per cent annually. Current gas reserves can only supply the UAE with 20,000 to 25,000 megawatts of power by 2020, half of the country's requirement by then.
With the high environmental and monetary cost of fossil fuels, the UAE argues it has no choice but to look at alternative sources of energy.
The bulk of the country's energy requirements will however not be met by renewable energy, according to the government's own assessments. Nuclear power, on the other hand, is expected to meet 15 per cent of the UAE's energy demand by 2020.
The UAE has stressed that it takes renewable energy seriously, which has perhaps been best demonstrated by Abu Dhabi's plans to build Masdar City, the carbon neutral, renewable energy city at the cost of Dh80 billion.
The UAE's bid for Irena, say observers and officials, is also an acknowledgement of its carbon footprint, one of the largest in the world.
If the UAE wins the bid, it will be one of the few countries in the developing world to host a major international organisation.
Abu Dhabi (WAM) Masdar, Abu Dhabi's multi-faceted renewable energy initiative, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Mubadala Development Company (Mubadala), has partnered with one of the world's leading applied research organisations, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, to develop a Sustainable Cities Research Centre in Masdar
Masdar City, currently under construction, will be the world's first carbon-neutral, zero-waste city completely powered by renewable energy. The city is the most ambitious sustainable development in the world today and will be a test bed for clean technologies.
Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft has over 80 research centres across Europe, Asia and the United States.
"Our mission is to accelerate innovation in clean and renewable technologies and make these available and affordable on a global scale," said Masdar CEO Dr Sultan Al Jaber.
Backing: French support
France will support UAE's bid to host the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena), a senior official has said. "France fully supports the UAE's bid to host Irena's headquarters. I would like to underline the relevance of balancing the location of the headquarters of international organisations," Alain Azouaou, French Ambassador to the UAE, told Gulf News.
"Having Irena's headquarters in Abu Dhabi will obviously serve this objective and pay tribute to the vision of the UAE leadership who are setting in the region a model of moderation, dialogue and openness," he added.
"French authorities are well aware of the remarkable efforts and huge investments made by the UAE to develop a model city in Masdar. The Masdar project is a symbol of the after-oil future and contributes to the regional and international awareness for the use of renewable energies," Azouaou said.
- By Rayeesa Absal and Binsal Abdul Kader, Staff Reporters
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