Ninth Session of the IRENA Assembly

Overview

The ninth session of the Assembly of IRENA took place from 11 - 13 January 2019 at the St Regis Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The Assembly is the Agency’s supreme decision-making body and brings together Heads of State, Ministers, government officials, and representatives from the private sector, civil society and other international organisations to reaffirm the global renewable energy agenda and make concrete steps to accelerate the global energy transition.

Two ministerial roundtables took place during the Assembly, featuring Ministers and high-level participants. They discussed the role of renewables in achieving universal energy access and the transformative impact innovation is having in the renewable energy sector. A special evening event on “Gender in the Energy Transformation” marked the launch of a new IRENA publication on the topic and feature an interactive discussion on the gender dimension of the energy transformation.

A number of the Assembly's Plenary discussions featured presentations and provided opportunities for contributions from IRENA Member delegations, stakeholder groups and the private sector. Plenaries will focus on aspects of the Agency’s work and actions by countries in the development and deployment of renewables. The Assembly also considered the conclusions of 16th Council and provided guidance on specific administrative and institutional matters.

Thematic meetings, organised by IRENA, and in collaboration with stakeholders, were held over the course of the Assembly. The main objectives of these were to raise awareness of the importance of renewable energy and its impact on sustainable development, connect policy makers, experts and 3 innovators from many countries to learn from each other, share good practices and inform decision makers by identifying shared needs and finding common ground on shared priorities.

The Assembly took place at the outset of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week and was followed by the World Future Energy Summit, from 14 to 17 January 2019, which also featured a number of events hosted by IRENA.

Programme

*Access to below sessions is by relevant registrations

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