By Busani Bafana DURBAN, South Africa, Dec 3 (IPS) – A new
protocol on climate change, with bigger emission-reduction
targets, will boost global investment in wind power, a
relatively emission-free energy that can help fight climate
change. This is the view of the Global Wind Energy Council
(GWEC). The council says wind power could meet up to 70 percent
of emission pledges made at Copenhagen in 2009. The projection
is based on the growth rates and projections for putting wind
power in place around the world in the next eight years. “A
second commitment to the Kyoto Protocol, but with more ambitious
emission targets and a continuation of Clean Development
Mechanism, will boost investment in wind power,” Steve Sawyer,
GWEC Secretary General, told IPS on the sidelines of the launch
of a new report, Wind Energy and Climate Policy by the European
Wind Energy Association (EWEA) at COP17. Sawyer says that while
climate change negotiations are slow, wind power is racing
ahead. Driven by private sector investment, inv