International climate action
The Kyoto Protocol’s first commitment period ends in 2012. Negotiations are underway to determine the terms of the next period, up to 2020, and are set to be concluded at COP 15, to be held in Copenhagen in December 2009. It is crucial that rigorous, legally binding emissions targets for industrialised countries – at the upper end of the 25-40% below 1990 levels by 2020 indicated in the Kyoto Protocol – are agreed.
The outcome of these negotiations is critical for the wind industry, as a new agreement will create the investor confidence needed to spur further growth in the sector.
The Kyoto Protocol takes a strong market approach, recognising that it may be more cost-effective for Annex I (industrialised) countries to reduce emissions elsewhere, with the same results in terms of global reductions. There are three flexible mechanisms to achieve this: Joint Implementation (JI), the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)) and Emissions Trading.
The CDM has contributed strongly to wind energy development in China, and to a lesser extend also in India. In October 2008, 538 wind energy projects were in the CDM pipeline, with a total installed capacity of 20,434 MW, representing 14% of all CDM projects. This figure increases by about 1,500 MW every month.
7 million ‘carbon emissions reductions’ (CERs) credits have been issued to wind projects, which will rise to 213 million by 2012. The majority of projects are in India and China.
The JI wind power market remains very small, with only 11 projects in the pipeline, all of them in Eastern Europe. It is hoped that the JI mechanism incentivise large countries such as Russia and the Ukraine to tap into their huge wind potential in the near future.
Global Wind Energy Council, Rue d'Arlon 63-65, 1040 Brussels, Belgium, Tel: +32 2 400 1029, Fax: +32 2 546 1944, Email: info@gwec.net