Europe’s energy future stands at a cross-roads. As a continent we have made huge progress towards a renewable energy path – with European Union countries legally obliged to meet renewable energy targets by 2020 amounting to 20% of the total energy share across the Union. But we now need to extend our political commitments, making them last way into the future – and reap the economic as well as environmental benefits. Without such commitments we risk becoming increasingly reliant on expensive, volatile and polluting fossil fuels.
As Europe’s biggest renewable energy source – currently meeting over 6% of the EU electricity demand – and as a mature technology that can be quickly rolled-out, wind power is ready to take on the twin spectre of climate change and energy security, creating thousands of jobs and boosting Europe’s competitiveness by keeping our technological lead in wind power in the process.