Portugal is a founding member of the first International Agency for Renewable Energies (IRENA), which will be formally established on Monday in Germany to help in the fight against global warming.

According to the German Minister of Environment, Sigmar Gabriel, the initiative is a “huge step in the sector, with many potential environmental and even economic.”

“The main target will advise and support the developed countries and those under development to focus on renewable energy production,” he said.

The initiative to create IRENA from Germany, Spain and Denmark, but are more than 100 countries that are represented in Bonn to sign the formation of the Agency, whose funding for its creation amounts to 20 million.

Portugal will be a founding member of the International “given the importance of renewable energy under the Portuguese energy policy,” the source told the Lusa Ministry of Economy.

The Bonn will represent Portugal in the Director-General of the Directorate General for Energy and Geology, José splutter, the assistant director-general, Benedict Morais Sarmento, and the Portuguese ambassador in Germany, José Caetano da Costa Pereira.

In June 2009 the member states of the agency decide where to locate its headquarters.

Last Thursday, at the 24th Iberian Summit held in Zamora, Spain, the Prime Minister José Sócrates and Jose Rodriguez Zapatero signed an agreement to establish a Center for Iberian Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

Director for this Center, which is based in Badajoz, Spain, was named the Portuguese Antonio Sa da Costa, current chairman of the Portuguese Renewable Energy Association and vice president of the European Federation of Renewable Energies.