16 January 2012: The International Energy Agency (IEA) and the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) have signed a partnership agreement that will see cooperation between the two agencies strengthened in areas such as development of joint Global Renewable Energy Policies and Measures Databases, activities to promote regular information exchange and strengthening technology initiatives.

Although the IEA and IRENA have collaborated in the past on developing a joint approach for renewable energy statistics, the agreement will formalize and strengthen their cooperation and allow for maximized output and ensure that the strengths of each agency and their complementary areas are used to their best abilities. This will also ensure that efforts between the two agencies are not duplicated.

The first initiative to be launched under the agreement is the free-to-access IEA/IRENA Global Renewable Energy Policies and Measures Database, which will see the original IEA database under the same name improved to include additional data sets from IRENA member countries and signatories. Both parties will be active in data collection, ensuring that data are updated biannually. [IEA Press Release] [IISD RS Sources]