Abstract
The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), created in 2009, is the only intergovernmental organization dedicated to renewable energy. Drawing on several new datasets, this article explores IRENA in the context of three other major international energy organizations: the International Atomic Energy Agency, the International Energy Agency and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Through this analysis, several empirical approaches to comparing international energy organizations are tried out. Direct comparison between IRENA other international energy organizations is found to be problematic as each organization is different and comparisons inevitably encounter apples and oranges type issues. The study finds that IRENA’s niche in international renewable energy governance is not yet fully carved out, but that the organization’s mandate and institutional structure, as well as recent international developments, indicate that it may grow rapidly in importance.
Highlights
International cooperation on renewable energy can be traced back to the UN Conference on New Sources of Energy, held in Rome in 1961 (Karlsson-Vinkhuyzen 2010)
We approach our objective by addressing the following three research questions: (1) What types of representatives do member states send to International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) meetings, and what does this reveal about how IRENA is seen as an organization? (2) What financing and human resources does IRENA have access to? (3) How often is IRENA mentioned in national energy policy documents? For each of these questions we include data on IRENA, and on the other international energy organizations
Drawing on an organizational ecology approach we identified an internal and an external arena of IRENA and posed three research questions: (1) What types of representatives do member states send to IRENA meetings, and what does this reveal about how IRENA is seen as an organization? (2) What financing and human resources does IRENA have access to? (3) How often is IRENA mentioned in national energy policy documents?
Summary
International cooperation on renewable energy can be traced back to the UN Conference on New Sources of Energy, held in Rome in 1961 (Karlsson-Vinkhuyzen 2010). It is early to subject IRENA to such an examination, given that it is still a young organization By conducting this analysis at an early stage, we aim to create a baseline against which to measure IRENA’s progress, as well as to test various empirical approaches to comparing international energy organizations, or other international organizations, in terms of their capacity and impact on policy-making at the national level. While the IEA caters mainly to oil-importing countries and covers all forms of energy (Wilson 2015; Baccini et al 2013), the IAEA, IRENA, and OPEC are dedicated to specific forms of energy—though IRENA’s renewable energy mandate encompasses various forms of renewable energy Given these differences, it should be noted that we do not aim at creating a ranking or comparative measurement of the success of the organizations. For this part of the analysis, we compiled a dataset on all of the 2709 representatives who participated in IRENA’s (annual) Assembly and (biannual) Council meetings between 2011 and 2014
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