Posted on 2-7-2003

Winds Of Change
From Greenpeace NZ

Auckland, Wednesday 2 July 2003: Greenpeace today launched a groundbreaking
new report Winds of Change.

The Greenpeace report, Winds of Change: Exploring New Zealand's phenomenal
wind resource and options to drive renewable energy development is
available at www.greenpeace.org.nz on how our electricity needs could be
met by harnessing the power of wind. "New Zealand is the Saudi Arabia of
wind and has one of the best wind energy resources in the world. We have
enough potential wind energy to produce three times our present power
generation each year," said Greenpeace climate campaigner Vanessa Atkinson.
"The new report Winds of Change underlines the importance of a strong long
term energy strategy to help protect the environment from dangerous climate
change and secure a sustainable energy supply". "Wind energy is the fastest
growing energy sector in the world and New Zealand is being left behind
despite having one of the best wind energy resources on the planet. Total
global wind energy capacity has reached 32,000MW, which is over four
hundred times larger than New Zealand's installed wind energy capacity,"
continued Ms Atkinson. "18% of Denmark's electricity comes from wind and in
Germany, 45,000 people are employed directly or indirectly in the wind
industry. It is ludicrous that New Zealand gets only about 0.5% of its
electricity from wind."

"If we look to the success stories of Denmark, Spain, the US and the UK,
major renewable energy development only occurred when the Government had
strong national policies and regional plans, supporting mechanisms such as
mandatory renewable targets and financial incentives." "The New Zealand
Government must do the same here and develop a long term energy strategy so
the country can be running on electricity from 100% renewable sources by
2020. Initiatives such as mandatory renewable energy targets and tradeable
renewable energy schemes, combined with changes to the electricity market
and financial incentives, are urgently needed to make a renewable energy
future a reality for New Zealand," concluded Ms Atkinson. Traditional
energy sources such as burning fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas release
carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that contribute to climate
change. Global warming causes glaciers to melt, sea levels to rise and
extreme weather events such as droughts and floods. Coal produces more
global warming carbon dioxide than any other fossil fuel.