The WCRE is the global voice for Renewable Energy. It operates independently and free of the vested interests of the present global energy system. As a non-profit and non-governmental globally working organisation it is focused on developing policies and strategies for Renewable Energy. Its mission is to bring Renewable Energy into the mainstream of world economy and lifestyle. It seeks to convince the global opinion of the potentials of Renewable Energy while showing the undesirable developments, the dangers, hidden costs and the damage to civilisation, caused by conventional energy supply. It is the world’s forum for political and economic concepts that are most suitable to assist in rapidly accelerating the introduction of Renewable Energy. For achieving its objectives, the WCRE’s major areas of activity encompass information, agenda setting and networking. Information as a mean to improve worldwide understanding about Renewable Energy policy and strategy issues are provided by pointing out the massive and immediate need for Renewable Energy and its availability for all power demands. Another pillar of WCRE`s activities is to network and to be the leadership forum of the global Renewable Energy community. All WCRE bodies – the high profile Chairmen Committee and Advisory Board, associated organisations as the European Association for Renewable Energy (EUROSOLAR), the American Council for Renewable Energy (ACRE) or WCRE Australia/Pacific, and WCRE members of all sectors of Renewable Energy – are highly committed to further establish better synergies within the Renewable Energy community and beyond to strengthen the movement for a better and more sustainable planet.
As a global voice for Renewable Energy, the WCRE embraces the participation of many types of organisation such as Renewable Energy associations, manufacturing companies, professional services firms, financial institutions, trade associations, professional societies, non-profit organisations, foundations, government agencies, and individual scientists.
Chairmen Committee
The Chairmen Committee manages and controls the affairs of the organisation, and has full power to adopt the rules governing its activities. It has a key function in initiating policies and activities that are in line with the objectives of the WCRE. It concretises WCRE’s mission, creates strategies, develops the organisation, and plans programs. The Chairmen Committee consists of one representative from each continent – Africa, America, Asia, Australia/Pacific and Europe – and appoints a General Chairman. The initial Chairmen Committee consisted of Hermann Scheer, German MP and President of EUROSOLAR as the General Chairman, Stephen Karekezi (Africa), Michael Eckhart (Americas), Rakesh Bakshi (Asia), Peter Droege (Australia/Pacific), Wolfgang Palz (Europe) and as associated members Preben Maegaard (for Renewable Energy grassroots organisations) and Angelina Galiteva (for International Law). Please find the current composition of the committee of Chairpersons here.
Members of the World Renewable Energy Council are, whilst fully maintaining their respective individual independence
- outstanding individuals acting for a global energy supply by Renewable Energy;
- Non-Governmental Organisations and Institutions working in the field of Renewable Energy, environmental protection, development aid, agriculture and agroforestry, industry, architecture and science;
- enterprises producing, financing, or supplying Renewable Energy;
- scientific institutes working in the field of Renewable Energy.
Membership for Non-Profit Associations in the field of Renewable Energy and Environment is free. All other members, such as supporting individual members, companies, and scientific institutes, have to pay a membership fee. For detailed membership fee scales, please see the Membership form.
Secretariat
The secretariat of the World Renewable Energy Council is located and organised at the headquarter of EUROSOLAR, the European Association for Renewable Energy.
Associated Organisations (Partners)
The World Council for Renewable Energy is closely linked to continental organisations which have the same objectives as the WCRE. Regional organisations on continental level have already been linked up with the WCRE or have been founded. Please find a list of our partners here
Our History
During the Impulse Conference „Promoting Global Transfer Activities for Renewable Energy“ in Berlin on June 8-10 2001, participants from all continents founded the World Council for Renewable Energy. The conference was attended by 450 participants from different continents and mobilised support for IRENA. The World Council for Renewable Energy (WCRE) was established with Hermann Scheer as General Chairman. The WCRE’s initial aim was to work for the foundation of IRENA, which was finally established in 2009.
WCRE Foundation Document (pdf)
This World Council shall be an independent global network of NGOs acting in the field of Renewable Energy, environmental protection and development aid, and of companies and scientific institutes working in that field. Its objective is to give an independent voice to Renewable Energy in the global energy discussion, since the existing World Energy Council is too biased towards the interest of the nuclear and fossil energy industry.
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On 13 June 2002, the WCRE and EUROSOLAR hosted the First World Renewable Energy Forum in Berlin. An „Action plan for the global dissemination of renewable energy” was presented. It states: “Among international organisations one is missing which concentrates with its entire strength on the promotion of renewable energies and constitutes with regard to that the international point of reference: the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). The contradiction must be overcome that the IAEA promotes the international proliferation of atomic technologies, while there is no comparable international organisation for renewable energies“.
Our Mission
During the International Impulse Conference for the Creation of an International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), from 8 -10 June 2001 in Berlin, the signatories founded the independent World Council for Renewable Energy (WCRE) to deal with the following factors and to consider:
- the fact that the global energy demand is increasing faster than the introduction of Renewable Energy;
- the comprehensive impacts, climate hazards, burdens to the environment, risk of accidents, conflicts around exhausting resources have caused an urgent need to replace nuclear and fossil energy by renewable ones and focus new investments on Renewable Energy and energy efficiency;
- the huge discrepancies in energy system requirements between nuclear and fossil energy on the one hand and Renewable Energy on the other require different sources, techniques, infrastructures, investors, forms of business organisation, as well as different economic calculations and political framework conditions;
- because of the infancy of Renewable Energy, the ongoing dominance of vested interests so far mostly favours conventional energy to the disadvantage of renewable ones;
- the tremendous natural potential of Renewable Energy could meet – by means of numerous existing and developing technologies for conversion, storage, and utilisation – the energy demand of the whole of mankind sustainably, emission free and ecologically balanced;
- the experience that the Renewable Energy potential and its opportunities for mankind are still underestimated in theory and not sufficiently considered in practice;
- the necessity to show the Renewable Energy Potential and the concomitant comprehensive political, economic, technical and cultural opportunities, to overcome the manifold barriers and to speed up the dissemination of Renewable Energy;
- the necessity to comprehensively stimulate the promotion of Renewable Energy in the fields of policy, economy, and research and development,
Mission
Task (1): The WCRE shall be a global voice for Renewable Energy;
Objectives
Task (2): The WCRE shall communicate the urgent and global need for Renewable Energy and their availability for all energy demands;
Task (3): The WCRE shall analyse the international barriers to Renewable Energy and prepare proposals to overcome these;
Task (4): The WCRE shall document experience of initiatives for Renewable Energy and communicate best-practice examples world-wide;
Means
Task (5): to support the creation of an International Renewable Energy Agency;
Task (6): to organise biennially a world meeting on the global energy supply, paying special attention to the political and economic mobilisation of Renewable Energy – the “renewable energy policy and economic forum”;
Task (7): to promote and support the organisation of World Conferences on Renewable Energy;
Task (8): to publish a “World Renewable Energy Outlook”.
WCRE Foundation Document (pdf)
Our Vision
Renewable Energy – the key element of Sustainable Development
All people are entitled to pursue a world increasing in bounty, improving in health, and growing in its capacity to host life. Each person might wish that his or her presence on this Earth will leave it slightly better off than before. Sustainable Development has become the vision for such an improved and long lasting model of world society. Yet the economic progress of the 20th century, based on fossil fuels, nuclear energy and large-scale hydro power, while advancing human society in many ways, also created a rising threat to a sustainable world. Considering Renewable Energy as the only energy option that contributes holistically to the overall goal of economic growth, social development, energy security, and environmental protection, promising a brighter, safer, and cleaner future for our and coming generations, Renewable Energy is the key element of Sustainable Development. Contributing to the global search for improving the status quo and responding to calls for better solution from every corner of the world, the World Council for Renewable Energy (WCRE) develops and promotes policies on multinational, governmental, regional and local levels in favour of the wise and prudent use of natural and renewable forms of energy. In particular today, in times of emerging global governance structures that must be designed appropriately to solve global problems, the world needs non-governmental advice from global organisations such as the WCRE.
WCRE – the global voice for Renewable Energy
The World Council, a globally operating independent organisation, is the global voice for Renewable Energy in the concert of global energy discussion. A voice speaking for the benefits of Renewable Energy for the quality of people’s life, for protecting the climate, renewing the industries, avoiding external costs, saving long-term costs and keeping peace. A voice challenging governments and international organisations to finally set their priorities on Renewable Energy and force the replacement of conventional energies. A voice to help transcend lip services often paid to comprehensive practice towards achieving a “grand strategy” for Renewable Energy.
WCRE – global leadership forum for Renewable Energy
The WCRE tries to bring Renewable Energy into the mainstream of world economy and lifestyle to transform it into a solar world economy. To accomplish this the WCRE serves as a leadership forum for all Renewable Energy sectors, building a greater sense of common purpose among the global Renewable Energy and related communities. Its mission to convince the global opinion of the potentials of Renewable Energy while showing the undesirable developments, the dangers, hidden costs and the damage to civilisation, caused by conventional energy supply. The WCRE is dedicated to motivate and encourage governments and enterprises to develop strategies for Renewable Energy. It seeks to unify Renewable Energy interests and help forge the necessary alliances – integrating those parts of the conventional energy economy which accompany them on their way towards Renewable Energy without accepting conventional barriers. It is the world’s forum for the political and economic concepts that are most suitable to assist in rapidly accelerating the introduction of Renewable Energy.
Scope – Promoting all Renewable Energy Options
WCRE promotes all of the Renewable Energy options including:
- solar energy
- wind energy
- biomass energy and biofuels
- hydro energy
- geothermal energy
- green hydrogen and other renewable energy carriers
In addition, WCRE’s scope includes the promotion of other related technologies that enhance the value of Renewable Energy including conservation and demand management, energy efficiency, energy storage, and hybrid energy systems.
Philosophy – Dedicated to the Renewable Energy Revolution
The conventional energy economy is based on the theory that we cannot do without fossil and nuclear energy – in spite of the fact that this theory proved to be wrong, it operates within the established structures of energy supply. Therefore, the established energy economy cannot be neutral towards all energy sources. It was developed and designed to provide today’s dominant energy supply. All the main energy players – enterprises, non-governmental organisations like the World Energy Council, and governmental organisations like the International Energy Agency – are set up upon the principles and structures of the highly centralised and heavily funded fossil and nuclear energy system. Thus, even the World Energy Council recognises that “there is … the barrier posed by the existing investments and interests in fossil fuel and nuclear energy provision and use” and it proposes “a single organisation to give international focus and leadership to the increased use of renewable energy”. The World Council for Renewable Energy is an independent, non-government organisation, unique in being solely committed to Renewable Energy worldwide and who responds to the need of an adequate representation of decentralised and small Renewable Energy organisations, consumers and producers. The WCRE is free of vested interests of the present global energy system and has no commitments to governments and international organisations, which have abiding interests in the conventional energy economy.
Means – Information, Setting the Agenda, Networking
WCRE promotes greater public awareness of Renewable Energy and its benefits for sustainable energy supply, national and global security, economic growth, industry productivity, human health, a cleaner, healthier environment and a world-wide credible prospect for global ecosystem survival. WCRE’s major areas of activity encompass information, agenda setting and networking.
Information
WCRE strives to improve worldwide understanding about Renewable Energy policy and strategy issues. WCRE works with its members to develop agendas, publish documents and organise conferences to globally promote Renewable Energy. Among the most important issues are information about the massive and immediate need for Renewable Energy and its availability for all power demands, analysis of the barriers to Renewable Energy promulgation and the preparation of proposals to overcome these. Furthermore, experiences of initiatives for Renewable Energy will be documented, best-practice examples globally communicated and advanced technological opportunities and applications of Renewable Energy Technologies evaluated. One of its main events to inform the international public and experts is the World Renewable Energy Forum.
Setting the Agenda
WCRE is committed to stimulate international organisations and governments to create policies and strategies to introduce Renewable Energy and to enlarge their share on the overall energy supply. The WCRE applies all its strength to elaborate and place onto the international agenda the following policies and strategies. These are enshrined in the WCRE’s Global Action Plan for the Proliferation of Renewable Energy:
- An International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA)
WCRE advanced the establishment of an International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) as uniquely and entirely dedicated to the international transfer of Renewable Energy technology, in analogy to the International Atomic Energy Agency’ (IAEA) promotion of nuclear energy technology transfer. IRENA has a legal status as an autonomous organisation to serve as an intergovernmental body with 134 member states and an annual budget of over 200 million USD. The function of IRENA is particularly to assist in building human resources and institutional capacity in the field of Renewable Energy, including cooperation by establishing Centres for the Application of Renewable Energies on regional levels, to help facilitate the local absorption of the transferred technology, know-how and services.
- A Renewable Energy Proliferation Treaty
The proposed Renewable Energy Proliferation Treaty is designed as a supplementary and complementary protocol to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to permit the signatory States to fulfil their internal and mutual obligations by supplying aid in form of Renewable Energy instead of nuclear energy technologies.
- Focusing development aid funds on the promotion of Renewable Energy
Individual governments and international governmental and non-governmental organisations should review their development aid schemes in order to implement the promotion of Renewable Energy as a main strategy. Renewable Energies are a mean to fight poverty as they are a comparatively inexpensive way to use energy service, to create jobs and to combat rural exodus.
- Conversion of conventional energy subsidies and public incentives into Renewable Energy promotion
The glaring contrast between today’s high nuclear and fossil energy subsidies and the marginal public support for Renewable Energies needs to be overcome. These energy subsidies must be gradually converted into Renewable Energy promotion programs. For example, it is essential that development assistance programs of industrialised countries and leading practices of international development banks place absolute priority on Renewable Energy within their respective energy portfolios.
- Global and national targets and strategies for the introduction of Renewable Energy, based on best-practice experience
National targets need to be determined in order to increase the share of Renewable Energy on the overall energy supply. The WCRE-promoted minimum annual growth rate of 2% can only be achieved by adjusting national regulatory frameworks.
- Global Industrial Norms and Standards
The WCRE appeals to the United Nations to advance the standardisation of norms for Renewable Energy Technologies to assure the compatibility of different technical components and to facilitate the trade of Renewable Energy Technologies.
- New Approach to Energy Statistics
The WCRE calls upon the United Nations to develop together with ISO/TC203 and member states’ statistical offices a new energy statistics data base and forecasting methodology. All energy sources are to be included here – e.g. Renewable Energy sources in both commercial and non-commercial form – in order to permit a consistent and comprehensive account of the true available energy potential and to make complete energy planning and forecasting possible, taking also all energy transport options into consideration. For accounting electricity the substitution principle should be employed not only to nuclear but also to power derived from the sun, water and wind. Furthermore, the passive use of solar energy such as in solar buildings should be taken into consideration.
- Complete Emission Measurements for the Clean Development Mechanism and Emission Trading under the Kyoto Protocol
The WCRE appeals to governments to permit only such Clean Development Mechanisms, which are based on a complete calculation of energy system emissions and to disallow not, for example, rewards for emission reduction schemes when total primary energy use is actually increased due to longer transport distances. Beyond that, WCRE requests the World Trade Organisation to develop in cooperation with ISO appropriate environmental standards for energy trade, in order to limit the free trade to such energy carriers and conversion technologies that are emission free.
- Elimination of trade barriers for Renewable Energy Generation, Conservation and Efficiency Technologies
The WCRE appeals to the World Trade Organisation to generally exclude Renewable Energy Technologies from tariffs in order to overcome the paradoxical inequity that lies in international trade in fossil primary energies being subject to fewer limitations than trade in Renewable Energy Generation, Conservation and Energy Efficiency Technologies.
- Aggressive financing for Renewable Energy through zero and low interest rate investments
National and international development banks need to go on the offensive to finance Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency via zero-interest-rate and low-interest-rate grants. This financing initiative must include co-operation with private development banks, solar energy finance institutions and Renewable Energy investment funds, which are active on local level.
- Conversion Strategies for Fossil-Energy-Producing countries
WCRE works on strategies to include fossil energy exporting countries in the means of transcending fossil energy driven national economies and dependencies. It also calls upon fossil energy importing countries to support fossil energy exporting nations to adjust in time to the impending massive structural shift caused by the inexorable global conversion from fossil to Renewable Energy. During its First World Renewable Energy Policy and Strategy Forum in Berlin 2002 the WCRE appealed to the international community to form the “Group of Renewable and Efficient Energy Nations” (GREEN Nations) which recognises global Renewable Energy proliferation as a key strategy for sustainable development worldwide. Inspired by this initiative more than 80 nations signed a Joint Declaration for Common Initiatives to Promote Renewable Energy globally at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg 2002.
Networking
The third pillar of WCRE`s activities is to network and to be the leadership forum of the global Renewable Energy community. As a network organisation WCRE assists its members and participants in expanding their relationships with the international Renewable Energy community.
- World Renewable Energy Policy and Strategy Forum
One of the major activities in this field is the organisation of the World Renewable Energy Policy and Strategy Forum. The First World Renewable Energy Policy and Strategy Forum was held in Berlin 2002 with more than 50 outstanding speakers and 500 delegates. Experts and key people from governmental and non-governmental organisations from all over the world came together and exchanged the latest ideas on policies and strategies of Renewable Energy. At this occasion the First World Forum presented an Action Plan for the Global Proliferation of Renewable Energy to the international community and demanded the formation of a Group of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficient Nations (GREEN Nations). In 2004 the WCRE was a driving force behind the International Governmental Conference on Renewable Energy to which the German Chancellor invited the governments in his speech in Johannesburg to the WSSD.
- Membership Meeting
The WCRE brings its members together with its Advisory Board and Chairmen Committee during the World Renewable Energy Policy and Strategy Forum. In this meetings new strategies for the overall aim to globally promote Renewable Energy are discussed. Members express their views and give a substantial contribution to the development of the whole organisation.
Committee of Chairpersons
Professor Peter Droege
General Chairman
Director, Liechtenstein Institute for Strategic Development
Renewable Energy Enterprise Development (REED) Program
EUROSOLAR – European Association for Renewable Energy e.V.
Prof. Dr. Ing. Hussain Al-Towaie
Professor and energy Consultant, University of Aden
P.O. box 7141, Almansoora, Aden, Yemen
Phone: +967 234 45 10
Prof. John Byrne Ph.D.
Distinguished Professor of Energy and Climate Policy
Director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy
University of Delaware
Newark, DE 19716, USA
Phone: +1 302 831 2792
Prof. Suani Teixeira Coelho
Brazilian Reference Center on Biomass CENBIO, Institute of Electrotechnology and Energy
University of Sao Paulo IEE-USP, Brazil
José Etcheverry Ph.D.
Co-Chair Sustainable Energy Initiative, www.yorku.ca/sei
Associate Professor Faculty of Environmental Studies
www.yorku.ca/fes
4700 Keele St.
Toronto, Ontario M3J 1P3, Canada
Phone: +1 416 736 52 52 Or Phone: +1 416 736 2100 extension 22695
Hans-Josef Fell
Member of the German parliament (1998 – 2013)
www.hans-josef-fell.de
Angelina M. Galiteva
Founding Board Chair
Renewables 100 Policy Institute
1507 7th Street # 586
Santa Monica CA, 90401, USA
D. Yogi Goswami Ph.D., PE
John & Naida Ramil Professor
Co-Director, Clean Energy Research Center
University of South Florida, ENB 118
4202 E. Fowler Ave.
Tampa, FL, 33620, USA
Phone: +1 813 974 0956
Prof. Jong-dall Kim Ph.D.
KNU Kyungpook National University School of Economics and Trade
1370 Sangyeok-dong,
Buk-gu Daegu 702-701 Republic of Korea
Phone: +82 53 950 6886
Vincent Kitio Ph.D.
Urban Energy Section Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
Water, Sanitation and Infrastructure Branch
UN-HABITAT
United Nations Avenue, Gigiri
P.O. Box 30030 Nairobi, Kenya
Phone: + 254 207 624 343
Klaus Knecht
Consultant
Dortmunder Straße 12 A
10555 Berlin
Phone: +49 30 3924979
Dr. Harry Lehmann
General Director‚ Environmental Planning and Sustainability Strategies
Umweltbundesamt – Federal Environment Agency of Germany
Wörlitzer Platz 1
06844 Dessau-Roßlau, Germany
Phone: + 49 340 2103-2649 (-2909)
Jeremy Leggett Ph.D.
Founder and Chairman, Solarcentury & SolarAid
www.jeremyleggett.net
Eric Martinot Ph.D.
Research Director Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies (ISEP)
4-54-11, Chuo Nakano
Tokyo, 164-0011, Japan
Phone: +81 3 6382 6061
Wolfgang Palz (Europe)
Paradijsvogelslaan 71
1160 Brussels, Belgium
Phone: +324 9525 0209
Irm Scheer-Pontenagel
Honorary Board Member and former Managing Director EUROSOLAR
European Association for Renewable Energy
Kaiser-Friedrich-Straße 11
53113 Bonn, Germany
Phone: + 49 228 36 23 73
Prof. Tanay Sıdkı Uyar
Head Energy Section Marmara University Turkey
President Renewable Energy Association EUROSOLAR Turkey
Zümrütevler Mah. Nil Cad. Hukukçular ve
İdareciler Sitesi. Sosyal Tesisi Binası Kat:2
No:7, 34852 Maltepe, İstanbul / Turkey
Phone: +90 533 395 5839 or +90 532 7744525
Thomas Weirich
Vice President of Membership & Corporate Relations
American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE)
1600 K Street NW Suite 700
Washington, DC 20006, USA
Phone: + 1 202 777 7582
WCRE Country Representatives and Members of the WCRE Committee of Chairpersons:
For Nigeria:
Stanley Igwebuike Ijeoma
Enviropreneur & CEO Schrodinger Ltd
3rd floor, Gateway Plaza, Plot 308 Maimalari Zakariyah Street, CBD, FCT Abuja, Nigeria
Phone: +234 806 2344 178
For Lesotho:
Moeketsi Mpholo
Centre Administrator
Energy Research Centre
National University of Lesotho
Roma 180, Lesotho
Phone: +266-5221 3529
For Vietnam:
Tran Van Binh Ph.D.
DVT *Dr. VAN TRAN Consulting Trading Co. Ltd
no. 17, street 9 A, Villas Group NAM PHU,
NAM LONG Park * Ward Tân Thuan Dong,
District 7 *HCM-City* S.R. VIETNAM
Phone / Fax: +84 837 738 954
For Mali:
Dr. Ibrahim Togola
President Mali Folkecenter Nyetaa
BP E4211
Bamako
Republic of Mali
Phone: +223 2020 0617
WCRE Network Leaders and Members of the WCRE Committee of Chairpersons
IFEED International Research Centre for Renewable Energies eV Germany
represented by its Director Prof. Dr. Nasir El Bassam
Internationales Forschungszentrum für Erneuerbare Energien e.V.
Kirchweg 4a
31275 Lehrte, Germany
Phone:. +49 5302 1303
REN21 Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21 Century
represented by its Executive Secretary Christine Lins
REN 21 Secretariat
c/o UNEP United Nations Environment Programme
15, rue Milan
75441 Paris CEDEX 09, France
Phone: +33 1 44 37 50 92
Innovation Network of the Japan Renewable Energy Foundation (JREF)
represented by JREF’s Director for Advocacy and Grant Programme, Mika Ohbayashi
2-18-3, Higashi-Shimbashi, Minato-Ku,
Tokyo 105-0021, Japan
Phone: +81 3 6895-1020
INFORSE International Network for Sustainable Energy, represented by
Gunnar Boye Olesen
INFORSE-Europe
Gl. Kirkevej 82
8530 Hjortshoj, Denmark
Phone: +45 86 22 70 00
www.inforse.org/europe
Hermann-Scheer-Stiftung
represented by its Chair Dr. Nina Scheer
Hermann-Scheer-Stiftung
Wielandstr. 17
10629 Berlin, Germany
Phone: + 49 30 343 955 51
microSOLAR
represented by its Managing Director, Nancy Wimmer
Representative for developing countries – microfinance
Phone: +49 810 634 147
WCRE Lifetime Fellows and Members of the WCRE Committee of Chairpersons
Preben Maegaad
Nordic Folkecenter for Renewable Energy
Kammersgaardsvej 16, Sdr. Ydby
7760 Hurup Thy, Denmark
Phone: +45 979 56677
www.maegaard.net
WCRE Founding General Chairman
Dr. Hermann Scheer (†)
Founder of the World Council for Renewable Energy (WCRE)
Our Partners
European Association for Renewable Energy (EUROSOLAR)
The European Association for Renewable Energy (EUROSOLAR) was founded in 1988 as a non-profit organisation that promotes the replacement of nuclear and fossil energies with Renewable Energy sources. Its members are private individuals as well as legal bodies that include numerous parliamentarians (from regional parliaments up to the European Parliament), scientists, architects, engineers, skilled manual workers, farmers, citizens dedicated to the widespread use of Renewable Energy, Renewable Energy companies, Renewable Energy associations, scientific institutes, trade unions, regional and local governments, municipal and county administrations. EUROSOLAR develops political and economic strategies and concepts, including legal frameworks, for the introduction of Renewable Energy. It promotes a broad-based socio-cultural European movement in support of Renewable Energy, the mobilising of new political and industrial forces as well as environmentally sustainable architecture. It addresses a wide section of the public by giving lectures, publishing articles, conducting consistent public relations and by arranging high-profile conferences. The President of EUROSOLAR, Prof. Peter Droege, has also been appointed as General Chairman of the WCRE.
International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA)
The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) is an intergovernmental organisation that supports countries in their transition to a sustainable energy future, and serves as the principal platform for international cooperation, a centre of excellence, and a repository of policy, technology, resource and financial knowledge on renewable energy. IRENA promotes the widespread adoption and sustainable use of all forms of renewable energy, including bioenergy, geothermal, hydropower, ocean, solar and wind energy in the pursuit of sustainable development, energy access, energy security and low-carbon economic growth and prosperity. With a mandate from countries around the world, IRENA encourages governments to adopt enabling policies for renewable energy investments, provides practical tools and policy advice to accelerate renewable energy deployment, and facilitates knowledge sharing and technology transfer to provide clean, sustainable energy for the world’s growing population.
ren21 – Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century
REN21 is a global policy network in which ideas are shared and action is encouraged to promote renewable energy. It provides a forum for leadership and exchange in international policy processes. It bolsters appropriate policies that increase the wise use of renewable energies in developing and industrialised economies. Open to a wide variety of dedicated stakeholders, REN21 connects governments, international institutions, nongovernmental organisations, industry associations, and other partnerships and initiatives. Wolfgang Palz takes part in the Steering Committee of REN21 for the WCRE.
Global 100%RE is a global platform advocating 100% renewable energy. It connects the fragmented dots of renewable energy advocates to build a global alliance, proving that being powered by 100% sustainable renewable energy is urgent and achievable. Hereby the platform carries out the “Global 100% RE Campaign” building on initiatives that already take place on national, regional and local level and steers the global discourse on renewable energy towards 100% RE as the new normal. The goal is to initiate dialogue about 100% RE, build capacity and educate policymakers about the opportunities, case studies and stories that are happening all over the world. For this purpose the platform aims to establish a global network of 100% RE regions.
American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE)
The American Council for Renewable Energy (ACRE) has been formally founded in Washington D.C., USA 2002 as a unifying voice for Renewable Energy in America, and as the American participant in the WCRE. The mission of ACRE is to mainstream Renewable Energy into America’s economy and lifestyle. ACRE is creating a national forum of leaders from the public and private sectors, building a greater sense of common purpose among the Renewable Energy community and related communities, and assembling and promoting better information about the benefits of Renewable Energy. ACRE fosters public policies and business strategies that promote Renewable Energy. It establishes programs among its members to remove the barriers to greater use of Renewable Energy, and encourage Renewable Energy solutions as part of a more energy efficient economy. The key to ACRE’s success is to build on and complement, not duplicate, the work of existing associations and organisations. The Acting Chairman of ACRE, Mr. Michael T. Eckhart, is member of the Chairmen Committee of the WCRE.
Climate for Peace is a global knowledge platform which aims to generate knowledge and bring together resources to build the evidence base on climate change and fragility. It serves as a resource hub for policy makers, practitioners and experts engaged in foreign affairs, peacebuilding, development and humanitarian aid to discuss and share emerging thinking and analysis on the links between climate change, vulnerability, fragility and conflict. The interactive knowledge platform provides a forum for policymakers and the wider public to discuss new ideas, research results and practical experiences on climate change and conflict, provide contextualised reports and expert opinions, informs about upcoming events, consolidates on-topic, international discussions and offers tailor-made information for foreign policy-makers. It also prominently features the opinions from science and civil society, particularly in regions affected by fragility and conflict, thereby complementing dialogue processes with partner institutions, governments and stakeholders.
Renewable Energy Foundation – WCRE Australia/Pacific
The Renewable Energy Foundation – WCRE Australia/Pacific is since December 2001 officially an affiliated organisation of the World Council for Renewable Energy and encompasses countries of the West Pacific Rim such as Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific Islands, Indonesia, East Timor, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Singapore and Indochina. The Chairman of the Renewable Energy Foundation Limited, Peter Droege, is member of the Chairmen Committee of the WCRE and organiser of SolarCity, a task force of the World Council for Renewable Energy (www.solarcity.org).
GBEP – Global Bioenergy Partnership
The purpose of the Global Bioenergy Partnership is to provide a mechanism for Partners to organise, coordinate and implement targeted international research, development, demonstration and commercial activities related to production, delivery, conversion and use of biomass for energy, with a particular focus on developing countries. GBEP also provides a forum for implementing effective policy frameworks, identifying ways and means to support investments, and removing barriers to collaborative project development and implementation. The Partnership brings together public decision-makers, representatives of the private sector and civil society as well as international agencies with expertise in bioenergy. The WCRE signed the ToR of the Global Bio Energy Partnership.
DDP – UNEP Dams and Development Project
Promote improved decision-making, planning and management of dams and their alternatives building on the World Commission on Dams core values and strategic priorities and other relevant reference materials through promoting multi-stakeholder dialogue at national, regional and global levels and producing non-prescriptive tools to help decision-makers. Stanley Mbagathi takes part in the Dams and Development Forum meetings, representing the WCRE.
Further partners?
The Long Road to IRENA
The WCRE has been the main driving force behind the establishment of an International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), which was finally established on 26 January 2009.
The establishment of IRENA is a huge success. Hermann Scheer as President of EUROSOLAR and General Chair of the World Council for Renewable Energy (WCRE) has brought up the idea to found an IRENA already in 2001 and has been speaking in favour of the Agency’s establishment ever since. Read our press release and the speech by Hermann Scheer.
The WCRE advanced the proposal to establish IRENA in spite of doubts that were expressed repeatedly and obstacles that turned up along the way. Together with EUROSOLAR, the European Association for Renewable Energy, the WCRE was the first, and for many years, the only non-governmental organisation that campaigned for IRENA. The agency is now getting ready to start its crucial work. As an International Governmental Organisation, IRENA will create a level playing field for the acceleration of the deployment of renewable energy everywhere. The agency will be instrumental in overcoming the persistent bias of international organisations in favour of atomic and fossil energies. We are proud that our campaign finally succeeded; in these 19 years, it was necessary to repeatedly push the idea forward and to encourage an increasing number of supporters worldwide.
Chronology
In 2001 the WCRE hosted the International Impulse Conference for the Creation of IRENA “Promoting Global Transfer Activities for Renewable Energy”. 400 participants from countries all over the world adopted a final Memorandum on IRENA. In 2004 the International Parliamentary Forum on Renewable Energies, chaired by WCRE chair Hermann Scheer, with 300 members of parliament from 70 countries present called for the establishment of IRENA. The German Government has, in his coalition agreement dating from 2005, made the IRENA initiative its own. Two resolutions of the German Parliament supported the establishment of IRENA in 2003 and 2008.
Discussions conducted with governments spanning the world’s regions since spring 2007 have demonstrated that numerous countries welcome the IRENA initiative and would like to be involved in setting up the Agency. At the invitation of the German Federal Government, representatives of 60 countries met in Berlin, Germany, on 10 / 11 April 2008 to attend the Preparatory Conference for the Foundation of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). At the conference, representatives expressed their overall support for the foundation of IRENA. On 30 June / 1 July 2008, the German Federal Government hosted two workshops in Berlin, Germany, that addressed IRENA’s initial working programme and its statutes & finances. WCRE press release.
At the Final Preparatory Conference for IRENA hosted by the Spanish Government on 23 / 24 October 2008, in Madrid, Spain, more than 50 states attended. About 150 representatives from industrialised and developing countries finalised discussions on IRENA’s Statutes and thus paved the way for IRENA to be founded in January 2009 in Bonn (Germany). WCRE press release. IRENA was officially established in Bonn on 26 January 2009. 125 delegations attended the Founding Conference and a total of 75 nations, both developing and industrialised, signed the Agency’s Statute. This number increased considerably in the meantime. Please find the current list of Signatories here.
At the second session of the Preparatory Commission, the Agency’s interim body, on 29 and 30 June 2009 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, member states elected Mrs. Hélène Pelosse as the first head of IRENA and designated Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, as the Agency’s interim headquarters.
On 4 April 2011 designated Director-General Adnan Amin from Kenya was sworn in as Director-General of IRENA at the First Session of the Assembly of IRENA.
With the Innovation and Technology Centre (IITC) in Bonn, Germany, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) based in Abu Dhabi, UAE, opened its European arm to work on a framework for renewable energy technology development, deployment support while looking into competitiveness and markets for renewables on a global scale, on the one hand. On the other hand the IITC aims to lay out scenarios and strategies that would allow the countries examined to use renewable energy adapted to their needs. The IITC opening ceremony was held at the Steigenberger Grandhotel Petersberg on 7 October 2011.
For more information about the history of IRENA please visit www.irena.org.
You can order the documentation “The long road to IRENA” on the commitment of WCRE and EUROSOLAR to bring about the formation of IRENA. Please get in touch with us via the contact form.
Memoranda & Guidelines
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