RIGHT POLICY BUILDS RIGHT (NEW) ENERGY

Cap and Trade Works. EU Replaces Coal Power with Wind Energy
Susan Kraemer, November 26, 2010 (Clean Technica)

"…[T]he paid trolls from the fossil industry [claim] Europe is not succeeding in transferring to clean energy, or cutting its carbon emissions (which is done by transferring to clean energy). Cap and trade won’t work [in the U.S., they claim]…because it didn’t work over there…[T]he facts say different…

"New EU-wide statistics from the EWEA (European Wind Energy Association) show that more wind power capacity was installed last year than any other electricity-generating technology. What’s more, new wind capacity replaced fossil energy…In 2009 Europe actually decommissioned more coal, nuclear and gas plants than it built."

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"A whopping 61% of all new power generating capacity added in 2009 was renewable energy. Of this, 39% of was wind power, followed by bio gas (26%) and solar photovoltaics (16%). Last year is the second year running that renewable energies have accounted for the majority of new investments, with wind power being the leader.
Investment in new European wind farms in 2009 reached €13 billion, including €1.5 billion offshore. Across the EU, 10,163 MW of wind power capacity was installed in 2009 – a 23% increase compared to 2008 installations – made up of 9,581 MW onshore (up 21% from last year) and 582 MW offshore (up 56% from last year).

"Europe signed the Kyoto Accord in 1997, and once 55% of the UN member countries signed on, its trading scheme came into force in 2005…That is when Europe began a cap and trade system – the ETS or European Trading Scheme."

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"…[A 2009 study] found that all participants in the ETS cap and trade had been able to sell their allowances, and that the value of these sales more than funded the cost to replace fossil energy with renewable energies or efficiencies. In the first three years, while US carbon emissions rose, the EU dropped theirs by 300 million metric tons…[to below] its Kyoto Accord goals…By mid-2008 (before the economic apocalypse), four nations (France, Greece, Sweden and Britain) had already met the first goal, to reduce emissions by 8% by 2012, having dropped them by 13%…By mid 2009, the UK had reduced its carbon emissions by 23%, doubling the 2010 goal…

"…It is simply not true that Europe has not succeeded in meeting the needed goals of the Kyoto Accord…And the one big difference between Europe and us is they have cap and trade that restricts the emission of greenhouse gases."