LONDON - Wind power could account for 12 percent of the world's electricity by 2020 if the technology finds sufficient political backing, environmental campaigners Greenpeace said yesterday.
In a report released ahead of August's world Earth Summit, Greenpeace said that by 2020 wind power could provide 1,260,000 MW of generating capacity, a fifty-fold increase on today's capacity and enough to supply all of Europe's current electricity needs. Greenpeace released the report at preparatory talks in Bali, Indonesia to lobby for a firm commitment to renewable energy growth at the Johannesburg summit.
The report, Wind Force 12, has backing from former Shell chairman Mark Moody-Stuart but says political obstacles, including subsidies for fossil fuels, must be dismantled for wind power to fulfil its potential.
"Wind power works, it's time for politicians to do the same," said Corin Millais of Greenpeace.
"The only barrier is political blindness and a woeful ignorance of what wind power can achieve."
Greenpeace estimates government subsidies to fossil fuels, blamed for the greenhouse gases that cause climate warming, and nuclear power cost up to $300 billion a year.
Backing the call for the removal of subsidies, Moody-Stuart said: "We have to ensure that the international finance institutions and export credit agencies are as willing to make finance available for renewable engery projects as they have been for what was conventional power.":
