According to Mr Sawyer, it’s important to understand the role of wind power in relation to the Copenhagen Accord.

“If you look at what the wind industry can do in terms of meeting the pledges made at Copenhagen – aggregate pledges from the Annexe One countries comes up to somewhere between 12 and 19 per cent below 1990 emissions,” Mr Sawyer explains.

“In particular in the EU at the moment, this is the emissions reductions effort which is committed through to 2012 under the first commitment period of Kyoto pledged to the EU legislation, which are 20 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020, when it was actually supplying somewhere around 32 per cent of the EU target in 2012 and 28 per cent of the overall target in the period between now and 2020.”

Clarifying his point, Mr Sawyer points out that 20 per cent of the EU’s Kyoto target was being met by wind in 2008, growing by more than 100 per cent in the period of 2010.

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“If you look at the Annexe One countries overall in terms of the pledges that they’ve put forward, then wind would be providing the emissions reductions equivalent to 21 per cent of their 2009 pledges, 44 per cent of the 2012 pledges and in terms of the total Annexe One pledges made to date.

“Just our technology can supply 70 per cent of those emissions reductions which says two things: of course, that we can play a major role in the discussion going forward; but also that the pledges are woefully inadequate.”

Turning his attention to the practicalities of financing the potential of wind power, Mr Sawyer says that the focus in 2010 is on finance, in particular where the fast-start financing for developing countries is going to come from.

“Historically, the governance of funds has been a fundamental and critical issue throughout the discussion and the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol and the small funds already exist within the framework convention, and that is going to continue.”

Highlighting some of his concerns about funding management, Mr Sawyer explains that public finance is generally at the whim of national parliaments and is not the kind of predictable long-term financing required.

“There’s nowhere near enough of it. And most of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries that would be ponying up for this are in and of themselves teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.”

Despite this, Mr Sawyer said, there is still a clear path forward.

“For us in the wind industry the uncertainty is unsettling but it doesn’t really change much about what we need to do. Focus on the national and regional markets and legislation, which is what really makes a difference as to whether or not projects can get built and orders get placed. We heard from Bloomberg New Energy Finance about the substantial role that the so-called green stimulus, particularly in the Asian countries, is going to contribute, and over $US150 billion ($164.3 billion) is going to be rolled out in both infrastructure and support over the next few years.”

Concluding on a positive note, Mr Sawyer said that he was happy to see wind had replaced oil in the International Energy Agency’s annual projection of the four major electricity generation technologies set to compete for market share.

Before his appointment as Secretary General of the Global Wind Energy Council, Steve Sawyer spent 30 years working for Greenpeace on a wide range of energy issues. Mr Sawyer also served as Head of Delegation to many sessions of the Kyoto Protocol/ UN Framework Convention on Climate Change negotiations.

Mr Sawyer is also a founding member of the REN21 Renewable Energy Policy Network and was a Member of the Steering Committee of the Renewables 2004 ministerial conference in Bonn.

Since 2004, he has been an expert advisor to the Chinese Government on the formulation of the country’s Renewable Energy Law, which entered into force in 2006. Moreover, Mr Sawyer has provided expert advice to the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and he is a reviewer for the Working Group III Report.