A recent survey carried out by the British Wind Energy Association, which also champions offshore wave and tidal energy technologies, indicates that new capacity of 7,500MW, likely to be developed half onshore and half offshore, should be in place by 2010, representing an investment of £7 billion over the next five years. Meeting the target would require the installation of an additional 2,000 wind turbines onshore and 1,500 offshore.

An opportunity for global progress comes at the G8 Summit in Scotland this summer, to be hosted by acting G8 chair and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, if his Labour Party is returned to power at an election expected in May.

Blair has put climate change at the centre of the agenda for a meeting to be attended by nations responsible for over half of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in January, Tony Blair said, 'Through the G8 process I want to develop a package of practical measures, largely focused on technology to cut emissions. I also think we need to work much harder to find ways to implement the vast range of low carbon technologies that have already been developed.'

The requirement for action is urgent according to Stephen Byers, co-chair of the International Climate Change Task Force, who warned in January that a critical danger point of global warming, beyond which the world could be irretrievably committed to disastrous changes, may be reached within 10 years.

MJ Information No: 20406