By Angelika Pullen, Communications Director, WindMade
Things are moving fast these days at WindMade – the first global consumer label identifying products and companies made with wind energy. In October, we published the first technical standard that sets out the requirements for companies to use the first wind power consumer label. Four weeks later, at an event in New York hosted by the UN Global Compact, we announced the first Pioneer companies that have already signed up to the program.
The WindMade Pioneers include some big names such as Motorola Mobility, Deutsche Bank and Bloomberg, and many others. They have all pledged to source at least 25 per cent of their corporate electricity use from wind power, and many of them will do much more.
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Proponents of wind power in Canada got a huge boost of confidence recently when Dr. W. David Colby, the acting medical officer of the Ontario municipality of Chatham-Kent, announced there is no scientific evidence of a link between wind turbine sound exposure and health problems.
Colby, who is also an associate professor at the University of Western Ontario’s Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, said that the topic of wind turbine noise has become complicated because of a huge misinformation campaign.
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The European Commission must propose legally binding 2030 targets on carbon reductions, renewables and energy efficiency, Eneco, Dong Energy and Scottish and Southern Energy – energy utilities from the Netherlands, Denmark and the UK – have said in a joint declaration.
On 13 December the Commission is set to publish its draft legal proposals on its EU energy roadmap 2050 and an ambitious Second ‘Climate and Energy Package’ must follow, the trio said.
“It is essential to bridge the policy gap between 2020 and 2050 in order to allow the industry to create a sustainable and affordable pathway to reach the EU’s objective of 80-95% carbon emissions reduction by 2050,” their statement said.
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Right now the world’s climate negotiators are gathering in Durban, South Africa for COP17 – the United Nations climate change conference. It’s December 2011 – at the same time next year we will be just weeks away from the end of the ‘Kyoto Protocol’ – a global legal agreement to cut carbon emissions. When that expires the world is likely to be left without legally binding CO2 reduction targets.
Rémi Gruet, senior regulatory affairs advisor from EWEA who is at the meeting, said the situation looks bad. The best outcome the world can hope for is a roadmap outlining the steps needed to reach a global climate agreement by 2015, he said.
Despite the warnings from scientists that we must limit global temperature rises to 2°C to prevent dangerous climate change, the political will does not appear to be there. “There is a decoupling between the science and political action,” Gruet said.
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Sea-based wind turbines, enhanced grids and project financing shared centre stage at the EWEA OFFSHORE 2011 event in Amsterdam this week as it became clear the industry has the potential of becoming a driving economic force for many European coastal areas.
Hosted by the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA), the bi-annual conference was told more than 141 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind energy capacity that is built, under construction, consented, or planned in Europe is enough to power 130 million average EU households and provide 13.1% of Europe’s total electricity production.
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