WASHINGTON, 28 March 2008 – As a follow-up to the successful Washington International Renewable Energy Conference (WIREC 2008), the United States has announced that it will continue collecting pledges for the Washington International Action Program through April 4, 2008.

At the close of WIREC 2008, more than 100 pledges had been received. Since that time, nearly 30 more have been submitted to the Washington International Action Program.

In partnership with the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21), WIREC 2008 is gathering specific, policy-oriented initiatives that will significantly increase the presence of renewable energy worldwide.

"The pledges are truly the most important outcome of this conference," said Ambassador Reno Harnish, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs. "We chose to continue accepting pledges for one month after the conference when we saw extensive interest in contributing meaningful commitments."

Many pledges were prompted by the closing session at WIREC 2008 highlighting pledges from around the world. Ministers from a dozen countries, including Brazil, Cape Verde, Denmark, Jordan, and New Zealand discussed their nation's commitments to renewable energy development.

Since that session, many countries and organizations were motivated to pledge actions of their own. After the conference closed, Rwanda pledged to produce 90 percent of its electricity from renewable energy by 2012.

The Volvo group committed to cutting their energy consumption per produced unit by 50 percent in 2010, as well as converting their plants to carbon-neutral energy use.

Partnership International took an innovative approach by proposing to accelerate central solar power and wind energy by assisting African nations that made WIREC pledges to reach or exceed their targeted WIREC goals by 2012.

And 26 of the United States, through the National Association of State Energy Offices (NASEO), committed to renewable portfolio standards that obligate each retail seller of electricity to include in its resource portfolio a certain amount of electricity from renewable energy resources.

Ambassador Harnish praised these commitments, saying, "It is only through concrete actions that we will see real growth in our use of renewables. These are all specific and measurable goals that REN 21 can monitor in the coming years. I encourage WIREC participants who have not yet pledged to send in a commitment this week."

Participants interested in making a pledge to advance renewable energy can learn more at www.wirec2008.gov.

WIREC 2008 was hosted by the United States government, with participation from numerous agencies, including the Departments of State, Agriculture, Commerce, Interior, and Energy, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

An international platform for government, private sector, and non-governmental leaders to jointly address the goal of advancing renewable energy, WIREC 2008 was the third global ministerial-level conference on renewable energy, following events in Beijing in 2005 and Bonn in 2004.

India has been selected to host the next International Renewable Energy Conference in 2010.