Sahara Wind at the 5th Middle East and North Africa Renewable Energy Conference (MENAREC 5)
The "Middle-East and North Africa Renewable Energy Conference» (MENAREC) was organized by a country of the MENA region in partnership with the German Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Protection and Nuclear Safety (BMU) and the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) since 2004.
The main objectives of the MENAREC can be summarized as follows:
Promote and strengthen regional partnerships on renewable energy development;
Foster the development of the most promising renewable energy technologies;
Examine the national renewable energy programs of the countries from the MENA region;
Identify barriers and obstacles that so far hinder the renewable energy development in the MENA countries and search for potential solutions.
History of the MENAREC conferences
The first 4 editions of the MENAREC conference, held since 2004, have been characterized by the active participation of officials from MENA countries and by the contribution of leading experts and institutions from the renewable energy field (among those institutions were e.g. REN21, REEEP, MEDREP, JREC, GEEREF, REEGLE, or WREN). Thus, MENAREC conferences have become an important forum for dialogue and exchange for decision makers between MENA countries and between EU and MENA countries.
Further, the participation of ministers and other government officials from the different MENA countries have attributed high political importance to the past MENAREC conferences. Exchange and consultation meetings between ministers, officials and private sector representatives are organized at each edition of the conference.
To date four MENAREC have been organized:
The 1st MENAREC was hosted by the Ministry of Electricity and Ministry of Water and Environment of Yemen in April 2004 in Sana'a, Yemen;
The 2nd MENAREC was hosted by the Jordanian National Center for Research and Development in May 2005 in Amman, Jordan;
The 3rd MENAREC was hosted by the Egyptian Ministry of Electricity and Energy in June 2006 in Cairo, Egypt; and
The 4th MENAREC was hosted by the Ministry of Electricity in June 2007 in Damascus, Syria.
The 5th MENAREC, hosted and organized by Morocco on 15 and 16 May 2012 in Marrakech had the “Prospects and Challenges for a SustainableSocio-economicDevelopment of the MENA RegionthroughRenewableEnergy” as its central theme
For more information please visit: http://www.menarec.org/MENAREC5.html
