WIREC Parliamentarian Luncheon

The parliamentarians attending the luncheon were in Washington, DC for the Washington International Renewable Energy Conference 2008, a follow-up to the global conferences held by Bonn, Germany in 2004 and Beijing, China, in 2005. For more information on WIREC, click here.

On March 5, 2008, the Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI), Congressional Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Caucuses and U.S. State Department hosted a parliamentarian luncheon in conjunction with the Washington International Renewable Energy Conference 2008 (WIREC). Parliamentarians from Germany, Spain, Melanesia-Solomon Islands, Romania, New Zealand, Portugal, Greece, Argentina, and Brazil gathered with their peers from the U.S. House of Representatives to discuss what their countries can do, and are doing, individually and globally to advance renewable energy and energy efficiency. Issues discussed included international agreements and trade, mandatory vs. voluntary targets for energy from renewables, feed-in tariffs vs. renewable energy standards, and the need to raise public awareness and familiarity with existing renewable energy technologies.