Sharm al-Sheikh/Berlin - Abu Dhabi will host the global headquarters of the International Renewable Energy Association (IRENA), it was decided Monday. The decision was announced at the IRENA meeting at the Egyptian resort city of Sharm al-Sheikh.
While IRENA's headquarters will be in the United Arab Emirates capital, the former West German capital Bonn will host the organization's "innovations" branch, and Vienna will host IRENA's office for liaison with the United Nations and other international energy organizations, the German Ministry of Environment announced.
German environment minister Sigmar Gabriel welcomed the three-way solution as a "fair and appropriate compromise," adding that this had avoided a confrontational vote between the candidate cities.
"(Such a confrontation) would have had left the terrible impression of an artificially charged north-south division," Gabriel said.
The delegation from the UAE was "very satisfied" with the decision, a spokeswoman said.
Abu Dhabi had offered to cover the costs for the headquarters, and launched a major publicity blitz, even arranging for a video promoting their bid to be shown on televisions in the delegates' hotel rooms, delegates said.
The city state has already invested some 22 billion US dollars in its Masdar project, set up "to establish an entirely new economic sector dedicated to alternative and sustainable energy."
In 2006 Masdar hired the prestigious London architecture firm Foster and Partners to design what the government hopes will be the worlds first "zero-carbon, zero-waste city" when it is completed in 2016.
Masdar's investment arm, a joint project with Credit-Suisse worth more than 200 million dollars, is also funding projects abroad.
It has invested in a project to construct wind-powered electrical turbines off the coast of Britain. With the Spanish company SENER, it is underwriting the massive Gemasolar solar power plant near Seville, scheduled for completion in 2011.
IRENA's preparatory committee included representatives from 114 member states.
