Membership

 

The Technology Collaboration Programme on Ocean Energy Systems (OES) was initiated by three countries in 2001. As of December 2015, 23 countries are members of the OES: Portugal, Denmark, United Kingdom, Japan, Ireland, Canada, the United States of America, Belgium, Germany, Norway, Mexico, Spain, Italy, New Zealand, Sweden, Australia, Republic of Korea, South Africa, China, Nigeria, Monaco, Singapore and The Netherlands, ordered by sequence of joining the Agreement. India and The European Commission have indicated to the Secretary that they will join OES in early 2016.  Communication continues with the governments of the following countries: France, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Finland, Ghana, Greece, Indonesia, Malaysia, Malta, Mauritius, Peru, Philippines, Russia and Uruguay.

The ExCo has adopted a practice of encouraging potential member countries to send observers to ExCo meetings. Observers are invited to attend up to three meetings, after which it is expected that the country will commit to joining the ExCo. This has proven an effective way of encouraging membership.

Participation in the OES builds connections between national governments and industries, creates networks of experts and expands national research capacities.

Figure 2: OES Membership Growth

 

National governments appoint a Contracting Party to represent the country in the Executive Committee (ExCo) (Table 3). The Contracting Party can be a government ministry or agency, a research institute or university, an industry association or even a private company. Governments also nominate alternates, who may represent the government at ExCo meetings, if the nominated representative is unavailable. Consequently there is a diversified representation of interests in the ExCo (Fig. 3). The ExCo considers this diversity to be a key strength of the organization and will strive to maintain this balance of representation.

Figure 3: Diversified representation of interests in the ExCo

Table 3: Status in December 2015