Manifesto for COP27 sets out eight actions to scale up wind energy

Category

Events

Date

22 September 2022

Location

Global

Mainstream has joined with more than 100 wind energy companies and associations to call on governments to take eight actions that will help the industry avert the climate crisis.

They are set out in the Global Wind Energy Coalition’s Manifesto for COP27, which highlights the challenge of increasing wind’s share in the energy mix to a level that will keep the world on track to achieve the goal of Net Zero emissions by 2050.

By then, wind energy must be generating more than one-third of global electricity supplies, up from six percent today – a capacity leap that will require an fourfold increase in annual wind installations during this decade to get started.

Wind turbines in desert setting - West Bakr wind farm

West Bakr Wind Farm was constructed in just 21 months under Egypt’s pro-active capacity building policy

Under the most recent projections from Global Wind Energy Council Market Intelligence, at the current rate of deployment, we will reach just 64 percent of that initial 2030 target.

The Coalition’s Manifesto, published today as part of New York Climate Week, urges “clear-eyed policymaking and global solidarity” at November’s climate action conference in Egypt to unleash the potential of one of the most rapidly scalable energy technologies available today.

Its recommended actions are designed to help raise ambitions for wind energy, remove barriers to its sustainable deployment at scale, and ensure that the benefits of the energy transition are shared equitably. In summary, governments are asked to:

 

 

  1. Scale up wind power ambition with updated NDCs, net zero strategies and mapped energy plans.
  2. Streamline permitting schemes to accelerate deployment of renewable energy projects.
  3. Plan the rapid build out of smart grids and storage solutions for cross-sector decarbonisation.
  4. Evolve energy markets that incentivise investment and support supply chain sustainability
  5. Avoid long-term lock-in of fossil fuels as short-term solution to energy security crisis
  6. Develop cohesive, inclusive policies to enact a just and equitable energy transition
  7. Ensure public finance adheres to robust ESG benchmarks and guardrails for a net zero pathway.
  8. Progress implementation of the global carbon pricing rulebook.

 

A founding member of the Coalition, Mainstream has endorsed the Manifesto with working evidence of what its pro-active policies can achieve in addressing climate action targets and providing energy security.

 

Read and download PDF

A founding member of the Coalition, Mainstream has endorsed the Manifesto with working evidence of what its pro-active policies can achieve in addressing climate action targets and providing energy security.

Hein Reyneke, Mainstream’s General Manager Africa, told how West Bakr Wind Farm – constructed by Lekela Power under Egypt’s Build, Own, Operate scheme – demonstrated the effectiveness of meaningful government action.

Hein Reyneke, Africa General Manager Mainstream Renewable Power

Hein Reyneke, Africa General Manager, urged governments to get ‘In with Wind’ as both a climate and energy security solution

He said: “It is significant that climate talks are returning to Africa, our future hinges on our ability to address the climate crisis while supporting the continent’s development. Energy security has joined climate change as the foremost crises facing governments today. They can respond decisively to both by accelerating the transition to renewable energy. Our track record in Africa shows what governments can achieve by adopting the eight actions contained in the Global Wind Energy Coalition’s Manifesto for COP27.

“When Egypt hosts the climate conference this November, West Bakr Wind Farm – constructed by our Africa joint venture in just 21 months – will have delivered its first 1,000 GWh of electricity into the national grid. And that’s just the tip of Africa’s 180,000 TWh/year onshore wind potential, enough to power the entire continent 250 times over.

 

We believe that wind can be a catalyst for countries to move from commitments to action, and we’re ready to help deliver it. We need governments to get In With Wind too.

Media Enquiries

Emmet Curley

Head of Communications and Positioning