The Irena headquarters in Abu Dhabi opens tonight, almost six years since the site on the edge of the Masdar City campus was chosen for ‘the greenest office building in the UAE

The UAE’s response to the energy challenges of the future is to host an international organisation that promotes renewable energy. It’s much more than a symbolic venture for one of the world’s largest oil producers.

As always with VIP openings, there is an element of theatre to this evening’s formal inauguration of the global headquarters of the International Renewable Energy Agency – Irena.

The completion of the 32,000-square-metre complex, named “the greenest office building in the UAE”, was originally announced in January during Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, but Irena can be forgiven for wanting its day in the sun.

The UAE beat Germany and Austria to the hosting rights for the organisation’s headquarters in June 2009, but it has taken almost six years for Irena to move into its permanent Abu Dhabi home on the edge of the Masdar City campus.

Until March, Irena’s Abu Dhabi team had operated out of temporary offices in a nondescript tower in Khalidiya. Details