Posts tagged ‘EU’
China outpaces EU and U.S. with new wind turbines
China nearly doubled its wind capacity in 2009 with 13 gigawatts of new generating capacity, compared to 10.5 gigawatts in Europe and 9.9 gigawatts in the United States.
Overall, the global industry employed around half a million people as it boosted capacity by 31 percent to 158 gigawatts.
“The continued rapid growth of wind power, despite the financial crisis and economic downturn, is testament to the inherent attractiveness of the technology,” GWEC secretary general Steve Sawyer said.
China has been criticized in many countries for its cautious stance at unsuccessful U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen in December, but it has not slowed its development of green power at home.
“The Chinese government is taking very seriously its responsibility to limit carbon dioxide emissions while providing energy for its growing economy,” said Li Junfeng, secretary general of the Chinese Renewable Energy Industries Association.
The prospect of fossil fuel prices soaring as industry hauls itself out of the current economic crisis has bolstered the investment case for wind energy, said Christian Kjaer, chief executive of the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA).
“Oil at around $75 in the middle of an economic crisis is unprecedented,” he told reporters. “If I were an investor, I’d want to limit my exposure to uncertain fuel prices.”
In a normal year, European wind farms will meet around 4.8 percent of total power demand, EWEA said. Spain installed the most new turbines in 2009, with 2.5 gigawatts, followed by Germany, Italy, France and Britain.
Spain’s lead may be eroded in 2010, when it reviews its system of subsidies, but Kjaer said subsidies were not the main force driving growth.
He said with oil in the $70-80 range, new onshore wind power was roughly cost-competitive with new gas-fired power stations, and just marginally more costly than new coal.
But from 2013 onwards, the EU’s carbon market will force all power producers to buy permits for each tonne of carbon they emit — giving green energy a further competitive advantage.
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Europe Bypassed on Climate Summit
No political entity has pushed harder for the Copenhagen conference on climate change to succeed than the European Union.
But just days before the opening of the United Nations-sponsored meeting, the Europeans have been largely pushed to the sidelines, watching as the world’s two largest emitters of greenhouse gases, China and the United States, seek to set the rules of the game.
“That’s of course the unfortunate situation for Copenhagen,” said Jo Leinen, a German member of the European Parliament who is leading the chamber’s delegation to the conference that is intended to follow up on the soon-to-expire Kyoto Protocol. “It’s turning into a bit of a ping-pong match between China and the United States, with each just looking at the other,” he said.
Europeans say they have gone further than anybody else in moving toward a low-carbon economy that could serve as a model for the rest of the world. But the bloc’s ability to exercise global influence through progressive standards and moral leadership, rather than through superpower status, is facing a key test.
“The E.U. frankly doesn’t have the political clout to determine the outcome at Copenhagen,” said Peter Haas, a professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
The E.U. still has much at stake in Copenhagen, however. It is facing huge pressure, Mr. Haas added, to “keep the prospects of a global deal alive so that European business leaders and voters believe they are on track to take advantage of green technology markets of the future.”
That will be a challenge. The E.U. remains internally divided on key issues, among them how much to pay developing countries to limit emissions and how deeply to cut their own output.
For full story click HERE
European Union eyes 10% carbon emissions cut for Airlines, 20% for Ships
The European Union’s Swedish presidency wants global climate talks in Copenhagen in December to set the first-ever greenhouse-gas emissions targets for airlines and shipping companies. But EU member states with large shipping sectors are fighting to block the proposal, which would force airlines around the world to cut emissions by 10 per cent and shipping firms by 20 per cent in the next 10 years, EU diplomats said Friday. Sweden, current holder of the EU’s rotating presidency, wants a meeting of EU environment ministers in Luxembourg on Wednesday to endorse the proposal as part of the bloc’s preparation for United Nations talks on climate change in Copenhagen in December. The EU is keen to seize the initiative in those talks by coming to the table with a blueprint deal approved by all 27 member states. A draft agreement prepared for the environment ministers’ meeting and seen by the German Press Agency
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