The United States officially joined the International Renewable
Energy Agency (IRENA) on June 29, 2009, increasing the number of
countries participating in the organization to 136. IRENA was
initially founded on Jan. 26 with 75 member nations, and its
membership now includes most of Africa, the Middle East, and
Europe as well as Australia, Greenland, India, Japan and parts
of South America. The new agency will engage governments around
the world in promoting a rapid transition toward the widespread
and sustainable use of renewable energy on a global scale. The
U.S. participation is an important element of the Obama
administration’s effort to support clean energy technologies and
the development of the low-carbon economies needed to address
climate change. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
said that the United States will work closely with other
signatories, IRENA’s leadership and members of Congress to
ensure the new agency’s work augments and complements other
renewable-energy efforts. At the IR