International Renewable Energy Agency launches today

A conference establishing the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) will be held in Bonn, Germany today amid growing discontent from across the renewables sector at the International Energy Agency's (IEA) performance as a global energy watchdog.

Germany, France, the Netherlands, Spain and Denmark are all expected to sign the founding treaty of IRENA, along with approximately 50 other countries.

The treaty will set out the new group's remit, which is expected to see it provide practical advice and support for both industrialised and developing countries as they seek to increase renewables capacity, help governments improve regulatory frameworks for the sector, and improve financial mechanisms for renewable funding.

The aim is to have the agency fully operational by 2010 with an initial annual budget of €25m.

Controvesially, the UK and the US have not yet committed to joining the new group, and will not sign the founding treaty. However, both countries are expected to send delegations to today's conference.

Observers believe the UK and US are concerned about alienating the IEA and its oil producing members, who could see the IRENA as a direct challenge to the UN-backed bodies authority.

Hans Jorgen Koch, the Danish deputy secretary in the ministry of energy and climate change, said that IRENA had only been formed because the IEA was not doing enough to address climate change and support renewables.

"For ten years the IEA has underestimated the competitiveness of renewable energy sources," he said. "Only OECD countires can be members, and only two per cent of its budget is given over to renewables – so there is a clear need for IRENA."

The charge that it has not done enough to support renewables is one the IEA disputes. Speaking to BusinessGreen.com earlier this month, the IEA's Dr Fatih Birol said that the agency had repeatedly called for the development of new policies to promote renewables and argued that the business as usual global energy mix is unsustainable.

German MP Herman Scheer, one of the driving forces behind IRENA, called on more developed countries to join and help share best practice with the developing world. "I hope there will be more countries who will join to give a big assistance to all the countries who have, and will have, a gap in implementation," he said.

A spokesman for the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) said that the UK could still join the group following on-going talks with the founding members. "There are a number of points that we have been discussing with the German government which we wish to resolve before we are in a position to join," he said.

DECC is reportedly pushing for an indication from China, the US and Japan that they will join before they will.