The Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC), along with signatories representing all the major wind industry corporations and associations across the world, have released a statement highlighting wind power’s role in the global economic recovery following the COVID-19 crisis and laying out the key policy actions that must be put into motion in order to realize a sustainable economic recovery.
Wind power is a key building block for economic recovery from the impact of COVID-19, which will enable governments to renew critical infrastructure for a sustainable future. The wind industry will help to deliver jobs, clean and affordable power, and energy security needed for a sustainable economic recovery.
Calling on governments, intergovernmental bodies and global lending institutions, the statement suggests key actions policy makers can take to put wind energy investment at the center of their economic recovery and growth plans with three overarching themes: investment for a sustainable and resilient future, an enabling environment for clean energy, and empowerment of people to drive the energy transition forward.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has had unprecedented social and economic impact around the world, and how we recover from the crisis depends on the actions that we all take over the coming months. We have the opportunity here to help kick-start sustainable economic recovery and build the energy infrastructure of the future,” says Ben Backwell, CEO at GWEC.
“Young people in particular will bear the financial, social, health and environmental costs of the stimulus plans now being designed, and carry the debt associated with this spending, so we must make sure they are able to benefit from today’s decisions. At the same time, governments should establish a principle of “no harm” for economic stimulus spending and ensure that this does go to reviving fossil fuel industries which need to be phased out to achieve the energy transition and head off the threat of dangerous and irreversible climate change,” he adds.
The statement has been signed by the major corporations in the wind sector including Vestas, Siemens Gamesa, Iberdrola, Mingyang Smart Energy, MHI Vestas, Acciona, Nordex, ReNew Power, EDPR, ZF, Orsted, Goldwind and Envision. Wind and renewable energy associations such as WindEurope, American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), Chinese Wind Energy Association (CWEA), Brazilian Wind Energy Association (ABEEolica) and Mexican Wind Energy Association (AMDEE) have all signed the statement as well.
The full statement statement highlighting wind power’s role in the global economic recovery following the COVID-19 crisis can be found here.
