Irena joins initiative to boost corporate use of renewables

San Francisco - Campaign to build partnerships to increase number of firms committed to sourcing renewable energy for operations

Governments and private-sector corporations will collaborate to scale up use of renewable energy in support of the Paris Agreement under a campaign launched at the seventh Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM) meeting in San Francisco, according to a statement issued by Abu Dhabi-based International Renewable Energy Agency, or Irena.
The Corporate Sourcing of Renewables Campaign will build partnerships to increase the number of companies committed to sourcing renewable energy for their operations.
"The private sector accounts for roughly 50 per cent of the world's electricity consumption and so must play a key role in the ongoing global energy transition," said Adnan Z. Amin, director-general of the Irena.
"Switching this demand to renewables will decrease emissions, generate jobs, and deliver a host of other environmental, social, and economic benefits across the globe. IRENA looks forward to collaborating with initiative partners to reach this aim."
 
Full support
The Irena joins the Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance, RE100, World Business Council for Sustainable Development and the World Resources Institute as initiative partners. At the government level, Germany and Denmark will lead the campaign in collaboration with China, the European Union, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Together with the 23 CEM member governments and the European Union, campaign partners will develop and deploy enabling policies and resources to help businesses source more renewable energy.
Among private-sector corporations committing to the campaign are Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Wells Fargo, the Irena statement said.
Part of the campaign involves encouraging companies to make a commitment to derive all their energy from renewable power sources, joining the RE100 initiative. A total of 65 companies have now signed up to RE100.