Leading Wind Energy CEOs Call for G20 to ‘Get Serious’ About Renewables

BRUSSELS, July 19, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — The leading CEOs of the global wind industry have united to call on G20 members to show leadership in the climate crisis by raising national ambitions and urgently laying out concrete plans for increased wind energy production to replace fossil fuels.

Representing the Global Wind Energy Coalition for COP26, 23 CEOs have sent an open letter to leaders of the G20 acknowledging that while some progress has been made in the energy transition, current net zero pledges from G20 countries still put the world on a 2.4C global warming pathway, well beyond what is needed to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

Meanwhile, wind energy and renewables installations are currently falling well short of the trajectory needed to meet international climate goals, requiring urgent action to improve energy policies.

"G20 member countries represent more than 80% of global energy-related carbon emissions – so the leaders of these countries hold the power and public duty to transform the world's energy system," said GWEC CEO Ben Backwell. "These countries need to get serious about renewables, and in particular wind energy as the clean energy solution with the most potential to help the world meet its Paris Agreement targets."

The letter is signed by the leaders of the largest wind power companies – including Vestas Wind Systems, Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, Orsted, SSE, RWE, and Mainstream Renewable Power, and associations representing the industry in key geographies such as the UK, Brazil, China, Mexico, and South Africa.

The signatories highlight that the recent roadmap from the International Energy Agency (IEA) shows that annual wind deployment must quadruple from 93 GW in 2020 to 390 GW in 2030 to meet a net zero by 2050 scenario. Both the IEA and IRENA are aligned in the total wind energy capacity required for a net zero scenario which is compatible with a 1.5°C warming pathway, foreseeing a need for 8,265 GW and 8,100 GW by 2050, respectively.

If current growth rates for wind energy persist, the letter argues that global wind capacity will fall dramatically short of the volumes required for carbon neutrality by 2050, with installation shortfalls of as much as 57% by 2050.

"G20 countries have huge amounts of untapped wind power potential which can fulfil significant portions of national electricity demand, but they are barely scratching the surface of what they can deploy. With the current pace of wind power installations across the world, forecasts show that we will only install less than half of the wind power capacity needed to get to net zero by 2050," said Rebecca Williams, Director of COP26 at GWEC.

To reach this necessary level of deployment, the open letter calls on G20 nations to:

1. Raise ambition for wind power at national level.
2. Implement effective policy and regulatory frameworks for procurement and delivery of renewable energy.
3. Commit to planification of clean energy infrastructure including grids and transmission.
4. Agree effective and credible carbon pricing mechanisms.
5. Align national and regional finance flows with benchmarks for a net 1.5°C-compliant pathway.
6. Develop cohesive and inclusive policies which dedicate public resource to the shift to a net zero economy.

In the last 20 years, wind energy has demonstrated its ability to increase production exponentially while reducing costs, create millions of skilled jobs and spur large-scale infrastructure investment.

But the letter emphasises that achieving the scale and speed of deployment needed to tap into these benefits and achieve net zero ambitions is unrealistic under the present "business as usual" conditions, and unachievable without decisive and urgent policy change across the G20 countries.

The open letter to the G20 heads of state was also shared with a number of government, energy, finance and institutional leaders, including the leaders of COP26, UNFCCC, IRENA, IEA, IMF, WEF and a number of multilateral development banks.

Annex

The full list of CEO signatories:

• GWEC : Ben Backwell, CEO
• RenewableUK: Dan McGrail, Chief Executive
• SSE: Alistair Phillips-Davies, CEO
• Orsted : Mads Nipper, CEO
• Mainstream Renewable Power: Mary Quaney, Group CEO
• Vestas Wind Systems: Henrik Andersen, Group President & CEO
• Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy: Andreas Nauen, CEO
• Bachmann: Bernhard Zangerl, CEO
• RES: Ivor Catto, CEO
• Aker Offshore Wind: Tove Roskaft, COO
• RWE Renewables GmbH: Anja-Isabel Dotzenrath, CEO
• BayWa r.e. AG: Matthias Taft, CEO
• Principle Power: Aaron Smith, Chief Commercial Officer
• AMDEE (Mexican Wind Energy Association): Leopoldo Alberto Rodríguez Olivé, President
• ABEEolica (Brazil Wind Energy Association): Elbia Gannoum, CEO
• SER Colombia (Renewable Energy Association of Colombia): Germán Corredor Avella, CEO
• Akselos: Thomas Leurent, CEO
• CEA (Argentina Wind Association): René Vaca Guzmán, President
• DNV: Ditlev Engel, CEO, Energy Systems
• EDPR: Miguel Stilwell d'Andrade, CEO, EDP and EDPR
• Glennmont Partners from Nuveen: Joost Bergsma, CEO
• South Africa Wind Energy Association: Ntombifuthi Ntuli, CEO
• CWEA (Chinese Wind Energy Association): Qin Haiyan, Secretary General

For an online press kit, including the G20 Letter, statistics on wind energy, photos, quotes and subject matter experts available for interviews, please click here.

About GWEC

GWEC is a member-based organization that represents the entire wind energy sector. The members of GWEC represent over 1,500 companies, organizations and institutions in more than 80 countries, including manufacturers, developers, component suppliers, research institutes, national wind and renewables associations, electricity providers, finance and insurance companies. See https://gwec.net/.

Keep up to date with GWEC and receive the latest data and insights on the global wind industry on Twitter, LinkedIn and by subscribing to the Newsletter, https://gwec.net/newsletter-sign-up/.

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