UAE in bid to host Irena in Masdar City

The UAE will "aggressively pursue" the right to host the newly-formed International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena) in its flagship Masdar City project, Masdar CEO Sultan Al Jaber said last week.

Al Jaber broke the news at the World Future Energy Summit (WFES) in Abu Dhabi, hosted by the Masdar Initiative.

The UAE became a founding member of the Irena the following week, signing the statute in Bonn, Switzerland, that established the agency.

"Masdar will express loudly our keen interest in hosting the Irena in Masdar City," Al Jaber said at the WFES. "We are going to aggressively pursue that."

The Irena was first proposed by Germany, alongside its partners Spain and Denmark.

"Hopefully we can depend on support from our partners in Germany, Spain, Denmark and many others, Al Jaber added. "I hope they will all be very supportive in our interest. We would do everything necessary to bring Irena to Abu Dhabi."

Masdar City is based on the edge of Abu Dhabi city. It is billed as the world's first zero-carbon, zero-waste city.

The city will create 50,000 jobs in what have been termed "green collar industries," - firms focused on renewable energy and sustainability. General Electric will be the city's first major tenant and partner.

A fortnight ago Abu Dhabi pledged to produce 7% of its energy consumption from renewable sources by 2020.

"We believe that renewable energy is crucial to the world's future prosperity," said UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs HH Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan Speaking at Irena's founding conference in Bonn.

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