World ‘must avoid introducing trade barriers to wind’

The Global Wind Energy Council warns tariffs on key commodities and components could add up to 20% to wind turbine supply chain costs

The world’s governments must avoid introducing trade barriers to wind energy and ensure an “open investment climate” for companies financing the shift to a low carbon economy.

That’s the verdict from the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC), which represents the leading companies in the wind energy industry – it points out that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) suggests investment in renewables needs to increase to $2.4 trillion (£1.85tn) per year by 2050 to tackle climate change, with the wind sector driving this.

GWEC warns tariffs on key commodities and components could add up to 20% to wind turbine supply chain costs, which it believes could dramatically slow down the energy transition at a time when it needs to be accelerating.

Ben Backwell, CEO of GWEC, said: “It is vitally important for countries, governments, companies and communities to be working together to scale up the deployment of technologies like wind energy that we need to decarbonise.

“And yet, every week we are hearing talk about new trade barriers and new restrictions on badly needed investments being introduced. Whether we are in Beijing, Brussels or Washington, we all face a common problem and need to cooperate to replace fossil fuels with renewables as fast as possible and at the lowest cost.”

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