Wind industry calls for ambitious targets

Poznan climate talks: Wind industry calls for ambitious targets for reducing carbon emissions

Coalition launches global campaign to demonstrate the potential of wind energy

Poznan, 4 December 2008. Wind energy is on track to saving 10 billion tons of CO2 by 2020, according to a coalition of wind energy companies, associations and NGOs launching a global campaign at the COP14 climate summit in the Polish city of Poznan today.

With the Wind Power Works campaign (www.windpowerworks.net), the wind industry will demonstrate to global decision makers that wind energy is the leading power generation technology with the ability to achieve substantial cuts in CO2 emissions in the crucial timeframe up to 2020. By this time, global emissions need to peak and start to decline if we are to avoid the most disastrous effects of climate change.

“Already today, wind energy is working in over 70 countries around the world, saving hundreds of millions of tons of CO2 emissions and delivering clean, reliable energy. However, for wind energy to meet its full potential we need ambitious and legally binding emissions reduction targets and expanded carbon market mechanisms to facilitate the broadest dissemination of wind power. Wind is the leading electricity generation technology that can deliver major emissions reductions in the critical timeframe up to 2020,” said GWEC’s Secretary General Steve Sawyer.

In its recently published ‘Wind Energy Outlook 2008’, GWEC set out a scenario under which wind energy could provide 12% of global electricity needs and save 1.5 billion tonnes of CO2 every year by 2020. This would add up to 10 billion tonnes of CO2 mitigated by wind power within this time frame.

“Wind energy has a massive potential to deliver cost effective, reliable and clean energy virtually anywhere in the world, but in order to realise this, we need the political will by governments to reduce emissions to a sustainable level,” said Peter Brun, Senior Vice President of Government Relations of Vestas Wind Systems, the world’s largest wind turbine manufacturer. “We are here in Poznań to call on global leaders to match their words with action, and to make them realize that existing mature technology can play a significant role in the CO2 abatement solution in the short term.”

At the press conference, 3TIER, an independent provider of global renewable energy assessment and forecasting, unveiled a 5 kilometer resolution global wind map. The map is based on a new 3TIER dataset, which is the most accurate, consistent and comprehensive dataset ever created of global wind resources and their spatial and temporal variability.

“Lack of information about the wind resource is one of the biggest barriers to global adoption of wind energy – not the technological ability to harness it,” explained Ken Westrick, CEO of 3TIER. “This map is intended to accelerate the adoption of wind energy development by identifying the value of the wind resource at any location around the world. It will allow developers, financiers and governments to identify the best regions in the world for wind energy development.”

Between COP14 and the COP15 climate change negotiations in December 2009 in Copenhagen, the Wind Power Works coalition will promote aggressive emissions reductions targets and a rapid deployment of wind energy around the world.
The Wind Power Works campaign is global, and includes a monthly series of 12 case studies of wind power in action The first case study is the wind farm at Lake Ostrowo near Wolin in Poland, which demonstrates the investment incentives created by the Kyoto Protocol’s flexible mechanisms.

In Poznan, the campaign is staging a series of side events, a photo exhibition and receptions at the Wind Power Works Pavilion situated in Hall 11 of the Poznan International Fair.

ENDS

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