The Washington International Renewable Energy Conference (WIREC) was held
from 4-6 March 2008 in Washington, D.C. WIREC was a collective effort,
involving public and private partners, both domestic and international.
Building on Bonn Renewables 2004 and the 2005 Beijing International
Renewable Energy Conference, WIREC brought together the world's leaders
in the field of renewable energy from governments, international
organisations, non-governmental organisations, and the private sector.
In partnership with the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st
Century (REN21), WIREC 2008 gathered 145 specific, policy-oriented
initiatives that will significantly increase the presence of renewable
energy worldwide.
"The pledges are truly the most important outcome of this conference," said Ambassador Reno Harnish,
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and
International Environmental and Scientific Affairs. "We chose to
continue accepting pledges for one month after the conference when we
saw extensive interest in contributing meaningful commitments."
Many pledges were prompted by the closing session at WIREC 2008 highlighting
pledges from around the world. Ministers from a dozen countries,
including Brazil, Cape Verde, Denmark, Jordan, and New Zealand discussed
their nation's commitments to renewable energy development.
Since that
session, many countries and organisations were motivated to pledge
actions of their own. After the conference closed, Rwanda pledged to
produce 90 percent of its electricity from renewable energy by 2012.
The Volvo group committed to cutting their energy consumption per produced
unit by 50 percent in 2010, as well as converting their plants to
carbon-neutral energy use.
Partnership International took an innovative
approach by proposing to accelerate central solar power and wind energy
by assisting African nations that made WIREC pledges to reach or exceed
their targeted WIREC goals by 2012.
And 26 of the United States, through the National Association of State Energy Offices
(NASEO), committed to renewable portfolio standards that obligate each retail seller of
electricity to include in its resource portfolio a certain amount of
electricity from renewable energy resources.
Ambassador Harnish praised
these commitments, saying, "It is only through concrete actions that we
will see real growth in our use of renewables. These are all specific
and measurable goals that REN21 can monitor in the coming years. I
encourage WIREC participants who have not yet pledged to send in a
commitment this week."
WIREC 2008 was hosted by the United States
government, with participation from numerous agencies, including the
Departments of State, Agriculture, Commerce, Interior, and Energy, as
well as the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration, and the White House Council on Environmental
Quality.
An international platform for government, private sector, and
non-governmental leaders to jointly address the goal of advancing
renewable energy, WIREC 2008 was the third global ministerial-level
conference on renewable energy, following events in Beijing in 2005 and
Bonn in 2004.
India has been selected to host the next International
Renewable Energy Conference in 2010.
(Text based on extracts from the WIREC 2008
News Release)
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