The global climate changes, the impending exhaustion of fossil energy sources, the dangers of nuclear based security as well as the proliferation of atomic weapons will result in our relying globally on Renewable Energy. This maxim applies for all countries throughout the world, for developing countries as well as industrial ones. Time is pressing; the introduction of Renewable Energy is not keeping up with increasing energy consumption. Industrial countries with established systems of conventional energy supply need to implement a thorough structural change to replace conventional energy sources with renewable ones, and in the meanwhile make greater efforts to reduce their over-proportional energy consumption. Developing and transitional countries, also have an increasing demand for energy which is necessary for their economic development. Most of them are still at the stage of introducing efficient energy systems, especially in rural areas. It is reasonable to conclude that they should start out with new technology for Renewable Energy, rather than going the long way round via nuclear and fossil energy systems. Because most of mankind lives in developing countries, a mass introduction of these new types of technology are not only in the interest of these countries, but in the interest of mankind as a whole. However, to date the broad technological and industrial know-how for the use of Renewable Energy is only available in a few industrial countries. The fundamental structural difference between conventional and Renewable Energy is that conventional ones are mostly supplied by large power stations, renewable ones mostly by smaller systems. Hence widespread participation in promoting Renewable Energy is necessary. Moreover, Renewable Energy systems are usually less complex, so that developing countries could well build their own systems. Unfortunately, so far this has not been the case. A prerequisite for the introduction of this new technology is therefore a speedy increase of the number of potential participants, who can organize a non-commercial transfer of knowledge and technology. Since this transfer has to be implemented quickly and on a broad scale, there should be a specialized international agency expressly created for this purpose. The proposal is for the creation of an "International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA)". IRENA should be supported and monitored by member governments. Membership must be open to any country that supports IRENA within the framework of its statutes. The agency is particularly important to developing and transitional countries which have few means of their own to organize transfers of knowledge and technology. The G8-"task-force" recommendations, to introduce new technology for using Renewable Energy for 1 billion people within the next 10 years, would not be possible without an organisation like IRENA. One of the tasks of IRENA will be to advise governments on: (1) drawing up national programmes for the introduction of Renewable Energy; (2) supporting education, training, and the dissemination of information about Renewable Energy; (3) implementing training activities for administrators, technicians, craftsmen and for small and medium enterprises (SME); (4) the cooperative foundation of regional centres of research, development, and transfer; (5) evaluating and processing information on applied technology and best practice experience; (6) advising on and arranging financing options for Renewable Energy; (7) collecting data and drawing up statistics. IRENA's tasks should be complementary to the activities of governmental and non-governmental organizations and enterprises. It shall not replace their activities, but support them if necessary and be active especially in those countries and regions where there are no relevant activities so far. It shall mainly work towards establishing and linking existing structures. It is a global project to help people help themselves to introduce new technol
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