While UN climate negotiations show no sign of significant progress, calculations from the European Wind Energy Association show that wind energy is achieving over a quarter of the emissions reductions required under the current Kyoto agreement.  
 
The UN climate negotiations in Bangkok last week “produced little more than the agenda for further negotiations” according to the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA).
 
“Discussions continue to focus around the legal form of a new treaty” explained Rémi Gruet, EWEA Regulatory Affairs Officer, “ignoring the key issue of how the international community will achieve the CO2 emissions reductions needed to prevent catastrophic climate change.”
 
“An international agreement remains absolutely vital”, said Gruet, “but it’s clear that while there’s an impasse in the negotiations, many countries around the globe are getting on with avoiding CO2 emissions by installing wind energy and other renewable energy sources.”
 
EWEA calculations show that at the end of 2010, wind energy across the world avoided 255 Mt of CO2, equivalent to 26% of the emissions reductions commitment of industrialised countries under the Kyoto Protocol.
 
By 2020, wind power should avoid between 46% and 69% of the pledges made in the Cancun agreement, depending on whether pledges are met to the full or the minimum.