The International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena) appointed Francesco La Camera as its director-general for a second four-year term and said it will adopt a new strategy based on “urgent and targeted action”.
La Camera has led Irena – the peak intergovernmental body for renewables – since 2019 and will now steer it to 2027 as it shifts its focus beyond its original remit to help push green supply sources into the global energy mainstream.
The body at its latest assembly set out a “new direction” under its latest five-year strategy based on “urgent and targeted action, unparalleled international cooperation, and continuous innovation”, and with a stress on issues such as a ‘just transition’ and energy security.
La Camera said: “We must build a new energy system with the tools and systems of the future, not the past. Just as we innovate to improve technologies, we must innovate to reimagine international cooperation for the new energy era.
“A renewables-based transition is a vehicle for climate-proof energy systems, improved energy security, reduced inequality and long-overdue universal access.”
The new mission unveiled at the Abu Dhabi assembly says: “The next level for [Irena] will be to consolidate all aspects of renewables-based transitions and consider structural impacts and effects on human welfare, along with its potential to reduce the development divide.
“A greater focus will also be placed on nexus issues where renewables can play a significantly positive role, including agriculture and food security, water, health, gender, and education, among other cross-sectoral issues.”
