Car makers should be punished for polluting, says Barroso

European commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso has suggested that car manufacturers who in the future make cars that breach EU pollution thresholds should be punished - writes Honor Mahony for EUobserver.

In an interview with Germany’s Bild newspaper, Mr Barroso said that the EU’s planned system of requiring new cars from 2012 to reduce emissions to an average of 120 grammes of carbon dixoide per kilometre would not be very credible if there was no system to enforce it.

“[Car manufacturers] should pay a sort of compensation,” said Mr Barroso.

He also linked being active on environment protection with economic growth.
“We are standing before the beginning of a new industrial revolution. If we are among the first to shift to environmentally friendly technology, we will have a competitive advantage.”

The commission is expected to unveil its legislative proposals on how to enforce 120 g/km threshold next month.  At the moment cars emit an average of 160 grammes of CO2 per kilometre.

Ever since it announced its intention to legislate in this area earlier this year, the car industry - particularly in Germany, home to makers of big luxury vehicles - has been strongly lobbying the commission.

German manufacturers want a staggered approach to the system allowing bigger cars to pollute more than small ones. But this has been strongly rejected by France, home to Peugeot and Renault, who say such a system would be unfair.

Earlier this month, a report by Transport and Environment, a green lobby group, showed a widening pollution gap between car manufacturers in the two countries.

During the Bild interview, Mr Barroso also touched upon another hot transport topic in Germany - the speed limit on the country’s motorways. He appeared to sympathise with efforts by the socialists, in government with the Christian Democrats, to introduce a speed limit of 130km/h on the roads. “Cars that are bound by a maximum speed limit emit less greenhouse gases,” he said.

Key Issues:
·          The IPCC cannot dilute the strength of its final (synthesis) report. “Delegates in Valencia cannot give in to political pressure and weaken the IPCC report – we must allow scientists to present the unvarnished truth,” says Hans Verolme, Director of WWF’s Global Climate Change Programme. ”Governments should follow the scientific advice and agree to making the necessary emission cuts.”

·         The IPCC report must set the goal for governments attending the UN’s Climate Change Summit in Bali in December to make deeper cuts in emissions post 2012. “The IPCC has done a lot to inform the political debate,” says Mar Asunción Higueras, Head of the Climate Change Programme, WWF-Spain. “Here in Spain the impacts of climate change can be seen all around us – we cannot wait any longer for governments to act.”

·        The world must cut emissions by 50-85 per cent by the middle of this century. “The technologies and measures necessary to combat climate change exist already - all we need is the courage and vision of the political decision-makers to give those technologies preferential treatment,” says Dr Stephan Singer, Head of WWF’s European Climate Change Programme.“What the world needs is a global ‘climate and energy security plan’ - the IPCC shows we can prevent dangerous climate change, the negotiations in Baliwill show if our political leaders are up their task.”

Media Events/Activities:
·          International Press Release – The Real Deal at IPCC – what some governments want left out of the final IPCC report - embargo 0001GMT/0101 local time Monday 12 November · 

Daily Media Statement by WWF, 0900 Tuesday 13 November through Thursday 15 November

·         International Press Release – Climate Witnesses Demand Climate Action embargo 1200GMT/1300 local time Friday 16 November.

·          Closing Statement Saturday 17 May.   WWF spokespeople will be available.

Press Briefing - Climate Witnesses Demand Climate Action
1200 Friday 16 November - NH Las Artes, Avenida-Instituto Obrero 28
Speakers - WWF’s Hans Verolme and Mar Asunción Higueras.
Live video links to Climate Witnesses in Norwayand Australia- Simultaneous Spanish/English translation.

Materials for the Media:

Press Pack - All backgrounders, press work, photos, reports etc at http://www.panda.org/climate.    http://www.panda.org/ climate. )

TV Footage – For broadcast-standard video, please contact the Media Team.
Online -  Blog at www.panda.org Global map of climate change impacts at www.panda.org

Spokespeople: Hans Verolme, Director, WWF’s Global Climate Change Programme. Stephan Singer, Head of WWF’s European Climate Change Policy Unit. Mar Asunción Higueras, Head of Climate Change Programme, WWF-Spain.

Contact the Media Team:

Brian Thomson, +41 79 477 3553,  bthomson at wwfint.org.  Martin Hiller, +41 79 347 2256,mhiller@wwfint.org.            Coral Garcia Baron, m +34 609 34 6838, email  cgarcia at wwf.es.

Brian Thomson
Media Relations
WWF International
Tel +41-22-364-9562
Mob +41-79-477-3553
Fax: +41-22-364-5358

[Comment? Opinion Piece on EUobserver.com] Travelling circuses are not worth the carbon.

01.11.2007 - 16:37 CET | By Peter Sain ley Berry

EUOBSERVER / COMMENT - One of the best pieces of advice I ever received - in the days when I worked in ‘organisations’ - was to find a public telephone box and call yourself up. Pretend you are a customer, ring in, and make some enquiries, perhaps a complaint. You will then obtain a very different perspective on your organisation to the one that you see from the inside.

This sound advice comes from the management guru Robert Townsend. He was writing in the 1970s but his advice is no less relevant today; and to large public organisations as much as small private ones.

From the comfortable, leather-upholstered chairs, clustered around the boardroom table, life tends to be painted in the colours the directors would hopefully wish it to be. It is easy for them to be taken in by their own importance.

The surroundings in which major public and private leaders live much of their lives - induces its own ‘folie de grandeur.’ So common sense occasionally flies out of the window. And symbolism flies in to replace it.

Especially prone to this madness are those in the higher reaches of government, perhaps because such people live in a rarefied atmosphere free from normal constraints.

Staff are always on hand to organise and prepare and shield; to write speeches, brief on meetings, organise food and refreshment, to set the diary, to arrange travel and generally to insulate the office holder from the routine pressures of life.

This apparatus of power sets the same seal of approval on all decisions and perceptions. Symbolism and substance can thus become easily confused. The public, however, is rarely duped. As Lincoln’s saying implies - you can only fool some of the people, some of the time.

The picture gained from the inside looking out may thus appear radically different to that of those outside and looking in. As in the story of the Emperor’s new clothes, those on the inside may not be able to spot the confusion, to see the idiocy of actions that appear plain as a pikestaff to everyone else.

Symbolism of the first order:

One such idiocy is the proposal now for European leaders to sign the Reform Treaty in Lisbon during, or just before, the December meeting of the European Council meeting in Brussels.

The sensible counter-proposal - to also hold the summit in Lisbon - has apparently been turned down by the Belgians who do not wish to create a precedent for breaking the relatively young practice of holding major European Council meetings in the European capital.

So the current proposal is that the other 26 leaders and their various staffs should fly to Lisbon merely for the purpose of a signature, a few photographs and perhaps a state dinner. Then all will return to their aeroplanes and jet north again to Brussels. This is symbolism of the first order.

When the Union is rightly urging, not only its own citizens, but the entire world, to reduce unnecessary carbon emissions, this vast job creation exercise is idiocy of the first order.

Why, for heaven’s sake, can’t the treaty be signed in Lisbon by the Portuguese Presidency and then brought to Brussels to be signed by everyone else? It can still be called the Lisbon Treaty - if indeed the name is important - for it really could be called anything at all.

The old Shakespearean principle that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, applies equally to treaties.

Anyway, let us hope there is time before December for sanity to prevail. Indeed, if our leaders were really to grasp the message that the European public are not exactly overjoyed at the prospect of travelling circuses generating vast amounts of carbon; if they wanted to demonstrate that they had truly repented of their fondness for symbolism, for royal progressions and their accompanying baggage trains, then they might even consider a late codicil to the Lisbon Treaty.

This would remove the relevant provision in the Treaty of Amsterdam that requires the European Parliament to hold its plenary sessions in Strasbourg and leave members of the European Parliament free to choose where and when their deliberations should take place.

Should they then choose - perhaps because of a misplaced fondness for Gewürztraminer and Foie Gras - to keep the Strasbourg seat with the enormously expensive monthly oscillation it entails (both in money and carbon terms) to and from Brussels, then the rascals could be held to account by their electorates and voted out accordingly.

Testing Sarkozy’s statemanship:
Of course, any proposal that the Parliament should give up its Strasbourg seat would test President Sarkozy’s statesmanship. Could he put the interests of Europe above those of France and end something that is that is the greatest of all triumphs of symbolism at the expense of substance?

But who knows what returns such a gesture might bring? He would then be free to call in any number of favours from his colleagues in the interests of protecting French agriculture and preserving la vie française from the depredations of globalisation.

He would also be in a stronger position to persuade his colleagues to adopt his proposal for the ‘Mediterranean Union,’ by which he sets much store. A future empty hemicycle could even provide the new body with a temporary home at least.

But much more than this, European leaders could use such a codicil to the Reform Treaty to show that they had in fact listened to the people. That they had stepped outside their air-conditioned offices and put through a call to themselves to see how difficult they had made the public’s task of being heard.

It would also be a small token to indicate that even if it were the case - as the former French President, Mr Giscard d’Estaing, argued this week - that the Reform Treaty had been engineered to avoid referendums - European leaders were nonetheless prepared to listen to the people.

That they were prepared at least to make a nod in the direction of the popular will - to make a gesture in the direction of the citizens.

And it would show that in asking us to make sacrifices for the sake of climate change, the Union was also prepared to make sacrifices itself. Not only by axing the junket to Lisbon, but of that far greater and greedier talisman: Strasbourg itself.

The author is editor of EuropaWorld.

Next week, the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will fly to Buenos Aires, Argentina for an official visit, and then to Santiago, Chile to attend the Ibero-American Summit, was announced October 30, 2007 at the UN.

Then, to help the secretary-general prepare for negotiations in December on a new international deal to tackle global warming, his spokesperson, Ms. Montas, said, that Mr. Ban will visit Chile, Antarctica, Brazil seemingly for pupose of climate change tourism, and end up eventually in Valencia, Spain, where scientists on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will release a new report on Nov. 17.

As we know, the U.N. climate panel, that is the official IPCCC, shared this year’s Nobel Peace Prize with former U.S. Vice-President Al Gore.

The IPCCC final report to be released in Valencia November 17, 2007, will set the stage for the annual U.N. climate conference on the Indonesian island of Bali in December that is tasked to start discussing a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol to the UNFCC to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which expires in 2012. Clinching a deal on new mandatory, deeper emissions reductions will likely take several years of intense and difficult negotiations and common knowledge is that if the negotiations do not get their start in Bali there will be no proposal ready for the 2009 meeting in Copenhagen - the target date for clenching an agreement that will make it possible to have actions prepared that can then kick in in 2012.

Montas said the secretary-general will visit Punta Arenas, Chile, “whose residents live with a hole in the ozone layer” and Chile’s Torres del Paine National Park, where glaciers have been affected by climate change. We have been to these places and this is great tourism that will also show the UNSG interest in furthering actions to slow down global warming and to provide for further steps on the ozone hole subject - after all seeing by yourself, and hearing complaints on location, will sharpen further his views on these subjects.

He will fly to Antarctica where he will be briefed by scientists at research stations, and then to Brazil where he plans to visit an ethanol plant and meet researchers and indigenous people living in the Amazon region, she said.

The secretary-general will wrap up his Latin American trip to the ABC countries of the LA cone, with an official visit to Brazil’s capital - Brasilia - and then fly to Valencia for the release of the report by the U.N. climate scientists, Montas said.

As we expect ourselves to be in Brazil starting November 17, 2007, we will be in good position to report then what the Brazilians, and the other Latin Americans of the South American Cone region, will say of the UNSG’s visit to their area.

————

The official announcement about the Valencia November 12-17, 2007 meeting:

Ban Ki-moon to attend IPCC press conference in Valencia on 17 November.

The Secretary General of the United Nations, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, will participate
in a press conference to launch the Synthesis Report of the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change in Valencia, Spain, on 17 November, the last day of the
IPCC 27th Session.

The “Synthesis Report” is the final part of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report
titled “Climate Change 2007.” This report is the latest instalment in a series
of IPCC Assessments that have provided the most comprehensive scientific
evidence regarding the state of the Earth’s changing climate. This work has been
conducted by hundreds of scientists around the world since 1988, when the IPCC
was founded by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United
Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). It led to the IPCC being jointly awarded
the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Mr. Al Gore for increasing knowledge on man-made
climate change and options to counteract such change.

Media opportunities for the IPCC 27th Session will be the Opening Ceremony on 12 November and the press conference on 17 November. Speakers at the Opening Ceremony will include Ms. Cristina Narbona, Spanish Minister of Environment; Mr. Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change; Mr. Rajendra Pachauri, Chairman of the IPCC and representatives from WMO and UNEP.

TO THOSE INTERESTED IN PARTICIPATING AT THE MEDIA EVENTS - LET US WORN YOU THAT UNLESS YOU ARE BLESSED BY THE UN MEDIA ACCREDITATION OFFICE OF THE UN DPI IN NEW YORK - YOUR CHANCE TO GET IN IS ZERO - AND SOME FOLKS THERE MAKE IT THEIR BUSINESS TO WEED OUT SUCH MEDIA THAT IS SPECIFIC FOR TOPICS OF CLIMATE CHANGE. SO, IF YOU ARE REALLY INTERESTED IN THE SUBJECT, AND YOU MAY HAVE HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE READING YOUR WEBSITE, YOU DO NOT QUALIFY UNLESS SOME COMMERCIAL MEDIA OUTLET HAS RECOGNIZED YOUR ACTIVITIES AND ASKED FOR YOU TO BE ACCREDITED AT THE UN.

Just to make sure we are not misunderstood - we believe the Valencia conclusive meeting is important, and the material that will be released will be brought to the attention of the media outlets by the European governments. We also believe that the EU and others will continue to promote the main ideas in the report - that global warming is man-made and that we will thus have to learn to live within the frame of an emissions’ budget; this until three years from now - the incoming US Administration will bring the US back to a leadership position in matters of global warming.

Monday, October 29, 2007
Nations, States, Provinces Announce Carbon Markets Partnership to Reduce Global Warming.

LISBON, PORTUGAL - A coalition of European countries, U.S. states, Canadian provinces, New Zealand and Norway today announced the formation of the International Carbon Action Partnership  www.ICAPCarbonAction.com) to fight global warming.

ICAP will provide an international forum in which governments and public authorities adopting mandatory greenhouse gas emissions cap and trade systems will share experiences and best practices on the design of emissions trading schemes. This cooperation will ensure that the programs are more compatible and are able to work together as the foundation of a global carbon market. Such a market will boost demand for low-carbon products and services, promote innovation, and allow cost effective reductions so as to allow swift and ambitious global reductions in global warming emissions.

The ground-breaking international and interregional agreement was signed today by U.S. and Canadian members of the Western Climate Initiative, northeastern U.S. members of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, as well as European members including the United Kingdom, Germany, Portugal, France, the Netherlands, and the European Commission. New Zealand and Norway joined on behalf of their emissions trading programs.

Leaders attending the summit included: President José Sócrates, Council of the European Union and Prime Minister of Portugal; European Commission President José Manuel Barroso; Governor Jon Corzine, New Jersey; Governor Eliot Spitzer, New York and Premier Gordon Campbell, British Columbia. Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governor of California, participated with video messages.

ICAP will open lines of communication for sharing valuable information, such as research, effective policy initiatives, lessons learned and new developments. By working together to establish similar design principles, ICAP partners are ensuring that future market systems, in conjunction with regulation in the form of enforceable caps, will boost worldwide demand for low-carbon products and services, provide a larger market for innovators, and achieve global emissions reductions at the swiftest pace and lowest cost possible. The new partnership supports the current ongoing efforts undertaken under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which all ICAP members agree has a central role in fighting global warming.

Global warming is a problem that requires a global solution. ICAP will facilitate such a global solution by:

Rigorously and accurately monitoring, reporting and verifying emissions and working to determine reliable sources appropriate for inclusion in a globally linked program.
Encouraging common approaches and furthering partners’ together to expand the global carbon market, helping to prevent leakage.
Creating a clear price incentive to innovate, develop and use clean technologies.
Encouraging private investors to chose low-carbon projects and technologies, generating the flow of money needed to support a shift to a low-carbon future.
Providing flexible compliance mechanisms that ensure reliable reductions at the fastest pace and lowest cost.
The following signatories and/or participants of the event said:

Prime Minister Gordon Brown, United Kingdom: “The launch of the International Carbon Market Partnership is a truly significant step forward in the global effort to combat climate change. Building a global carbon market is fundamental to reducing greenhouse gas emissions while allowing economies to grow and prosper. Trading emissions between between nations allows us all to reach our greenhouse gas targets more cost-effectively. And it therefore allows us to reduce emissions more than we could by acting alone.”

Governor Jon Corzine, New Jersey: “My background as the former head of Goldman Sachs has given me a unique perspective on many market-based solutions to important public problems, such as environmental degradation. But it is my life in public service that has helped me understand that it will take the courage and commitment of a core set of leaders, like those of us gathered today, to drive implementation of smart, feasible, and measurable policies needed to address an issue as urgent as global warming.”

Governor Eliot Spitzer, New York: “Global warming is the most significant environmental problem of our generation, and by establishing an international partnership, we are taking the vital steps to address this growing concern. In the absence of federal leadership, New York is implementing a greenhouse gas emissions trading program that will achieve a 16 percent reduction in power plant emissions by 2019. Today, we continue that work by joining the International Carbon Action Partnership, or ICAP, where we can begin working with our global partners, share experiences and address issues of program design and compatibility, thereby strengthening our markets.”

Premier Gordon Campbell, British Columbia: “Tackling global warming requires international cooperation and collaboration unlike anything we have seen before. It is vitally important that as we design our own market systems we coordinate with other provinces, states, nations and continents. The partnership we have signed today opens the door, for the first time ever, to jurisdictions around the globe to share ideas and new technologies, and ultimately will lay the foundation for a compatible market-based system to trade carbon offsets and credits worldwide.”

John Hutton, secretary of state for Business, Enterprise, and Regulatory Reform, United Kingdom: “This initiative is an extremely important contribution to the global effort to solve the urgent problem of climate change. Business tells us they want clarity on what they will be asked to do, and that they prefer a market-based approach. That is why the global carbon market will be fundamental in the move to a low carbon economy, and why ICAP is such a valuable forum, with its practical emphasis on collaborating and sharing experience and expertise.”

For more information, please visit www.ICAPCarbonAction.com.

————————
Carbon Partnership Hopes to Go Global - reports Reuters from Lisbon, October 30, 2007

A coalition of European countries, US states, Canadian provinces and New Zealand signed a partnership on Monday to slow global warming through an international carbon trading market, officials said on Monday.

The International Carbon Action Partnership (ICAP) hopes to become a stepping stone for the creation of a global market for heat-trapping gases that many scientists link to extreme weather like violent hurricanes and rising sea levels.
“We will be sending important signal to others. We will be saying to leaders across the world that we can work together to reduce emissions,” said European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.

The European Union has taken the lead in the fight against global warming by setting up a landmark EU emissions trading scheme in 2005 which aims to reduce emissions by putting a price on carbon that businesses use.

Carbon markets allow countries and companies to meet greenhouse gas emissions targets by shopping around for the cheapest carbon offsets, but some analysts say that wide differences among proposed schemes will prevent market links.

“I firmly believe a global market for greenhouse gases will allow us to protect the environment while growing the economy,” said Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Governor of California and one of ICAP’s 20 founding members, in a video message.

“This partnership will provide more incentives for clean-tech investment and economic growth while not letting polluters off the hook.”

At least 16 US states plus New Zealand, Australia and seven Canadian provinces are investigating following a European Union’s lead by launching a carbon trading scheme, as one policy tool in the fight against climate change.

SIGNATORIES

ICAP also hopes such a forum will help boost demand for low-carbon products and services that will allow for cost effective reductions in global warming emissions.

The partnership’s signatories included British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Norway, the Premier of British Columbia Gordon Campbell and New York Governor Eliot Spitzer.

Spitzer said he was disappointed that US President George Bush had not signed up to this agreement but said he hoped the next president would do so.

“There is now an understanding, an agreement, of the enormity of this problem (climate change). I have no doubt that whoever succeeds President Bush will fully understand this issue,” he said.

The United States is, by most counts, the world’s largest producer of the heat-trapping gases but the current administration has so far rejected putting binding caps on industrial emissions of carbon dioxide.

Representatives of 180 countries will meet at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali on December 3.

New Jersey and New York Have Now Joined The EU on Matters Of Climate Change/Global Warming - as California Did Before Them - So Did British Columbia The Canadian Province. (an update)

Corzine traveling to Portugal to discuss climate change according to www.NJ.com and the Star-Ledger.

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2007/10/corzine_traveling_to_portugal.html

Friday October 26, 2007, Gov. Jon S. Corzine plans to attend a Monday forum in Portugal where participants will discuss climate change and unveil an international effort to try to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Corzine, who in July signed a law requiring New Jersey to cut emissions of global-warming gases, is due to leave Newark Liberty International Airport Sunday night. The Lisbon forum is set to start at 6 a.m. EST Monday.

Corzine, a Democrat and former U.S. senator, will be joined at the forum by Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates, whose country holds the European Union’s rotating presidency.

British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell and officials from the European Commission, the United Kingdom, Germany, Norway, the Netherlands, France and New Zealand are also expected to attend, as is Linda Adams, California’s environmental protection secretary.

Corzine and the other leaders will announce the formation of the International Carbon Action Partnership, which is designed to bring together regions and governments committed to trying to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The coalition, Gilfillan said, plans to share experiences and practices on cutting emissions.

New Jersey became the third state in the United States to enact a comprehensive greenhouse gas reduction law. The measure signed by Corzine requires the Garden State to significantly cut emissions of global-warming gases.

France and Britain suggest tax cut on green products.
By Jochen Luypaert, for the EUobserver, October 30, 2007.

Following a joint initiative of France and the UK, EU finance ministers will discuss cutting value-added taxes on energy efficient products in an effort to stimulate consumers to shop in a more environmental-friendly way.

The European Commission said discussions on the issue will start during the next finance ministers meeting on 13 November, after London and Paris sent a joint letter to the EU executive outlining the idea last week.

On Thursday (25 October), French president Nicholas Sarkozy said that France wants to undergo a green revolution. One of his proposals included making environmentally-friendly goods less expensive, arguing that “where a clean product exists it should be cheaper than a polluting product.”

“I call for the creation of reduced VAT rate for all ecological products which respect biodiversity,” he was quoted as saying by AFP.

For its part, the Commission said it is open to all ideas, as long as they do not distort the internal market. It also stressed that France and Britain would need to gain the support of all 25 other member states.

“We have to be clear on which products, we have to be clear about the purpose of this measure to have the effect we are looking for, to not distort the internal market, and for all this to happen, we need unanimity in the Council [of finance ministers],” a spokesperson said on Friday.

Reducing value added taxes is a politically delicate subject in the EU, as member states generally have different positions on the required level of taxes for different types of products.

Under current EU rules, member states can decide on the level of these taxes, but they should not go below 15% for goods and services, although exceptions for certain products – such as children’s clothing - have been granted in the past.

GWEC PRESS ADVISORY
21 September 2007
GWEC Secretary General to attend UN, Washington climate talks

Brussels, 21 September

Steve Sawyer, Secretary General of The Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) has been invited to attend UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon’s high level climate debate at UN headquarters in New York on 24 September, and will be in Washington for US President Bush’s Major Emitter’s Meeting on 27& 28 September. Mr. Sawyer will be available for comment and analysis throughout.

The UN event (see: http://www.un.org/climatechange/2007high… ) is expected to attract senior government representatives from more than 150 countries, including at least 70 Heads of State/Government, and is designed to galvanize global political action on climate change in the run up to the UN Climate Summit in Bali, Indonesia in December.

“Global emissions must peak and begin to decline by 2020 if we are to avoid the worst effects of climate change,” said Sawyer. “In the power sector, there are only three main options for reducing emissions in that time frame: energy efficiency, fuel switching, and to continue and increase the rapid expansion of wind power globally.”

“The wind power industry is growing very rapidly; it can supply as much as 16% of global electricity needs by 2020. This would save 1.5 billion tonnes of CO2 emissions globally in 2020 and make a major contribution to fighting climate change. But governments must do their job and set a clear, legally binding framework within which we can do our job.”

Later in the week, the scene shifts to Washington, where President Bush has invited representatives from the so-called ‘Major Emitters’, for further discussions on how to move forward on the climate issue.

“Only recently has the Bush administration acknowledged the seriousness of the climate issue, and that it must be dealt with globally through the United Nations. We need to remind Mr. Bush of the extraordinary success of the wind power industry in the United States, and how it is poised to play a major role as the United States joins the global fight to protect the climate.”

For further information:

Steve Sawyer, GWEC Secretary General:

In the US: +1 603 547 0618 (from Sunday 23rd)
In Brussels: +32 2 400 1030

Global Wind Energy Council
Renewable Energy House - Rue d’Arlon 63-65, 1040 Brussels, Belgium
Tel: +32 2 5025502 Web: www.gwec.net