Bali climate conference breakthrough welcomed by global wind council
"We now have a clear path and a lot of work to do over the next two years," says Steve Sawyer of the Global Wind Energy Council, welcoming the outcome of the recent United Nations climate change conference in Bali. It was "historic," he says, of the eleventh hour decision by the US to sign up to the so-called Bali roadmap -- an agreement by countries across the world to move forward on designing a binding post-2012 strategy to reduce global carbon emissions when the current commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol comes to an end. These new strategies will seek to improve upon the Kyoto Protocol's market mechanisms for carbon reduction and tighten existing loopholes. No specific carbon reduction targets have been set, but the signatories to the roadmap have agreed to be guided by the recommendations of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for emission cuts by industrialised countries of 25-40% below 1990 levels by 2020. "The wind industry will play a key role in meeting strong emission reductions from the power sector," says Sawyer. The task now, he adds, is "to improve the functioning of the carbon markets...and improve the framework to create markets for the dissemination of our clean, emission free energy technology throughout the world."