The Federal Government of Nigeria has revealed plans to float a Green Bond which will drive investments for climate-friendly projects as part of economic transformation, which places inclusive green growth at the centre.
Yemi Osinbajo, Acting President of Nigeria. He will next month in Lagos launch the Green Bond funding instrument
Minister of State for Environment, Ibrahim Usman Jibril, made this known in Abeokuta, Ogun State on Monday, February 13 2017 at the first leg of the Climate Change Knowledge Immersion Workshop series which was organised by the Ministry’s Department of Climate Change and the World Bank.
“The Federal Ministry of Environment is about floating a Green Bond which will be launched in March in collaboration with the Nigerian Stock Exchange,” he stated during his remarks at the workshop.
Even though he did not give the precise value of the bond, the minister estimated that it could be in the region of $2 billion.
“We are targeting like $2 billion but, from all indications, it can go beyond that because people have shown interest,” he stated, adding that “the figure might be very high but we are confident that over a period of time that much more money can be raised in this country.”
The international community has in recent times expressed strong confidence in the Federal Government of Nigeria with the oversubscription of a recent $1 billion Euro Bond by 700%.
According to the minister, the aim of the Green Bond is to get private capital investments for green technology, sustainable agriculture and the environment in the country. “Once we have people who are willing to invest in programmes or projects that will assist in mitigation of climate change, the bond will go a long way to assist us.”
Mr Jubril also explained that the bond is geared at overcoming the challenge of “accessing international funding for climate-friendly projects” for the priority sectors of the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) sector road-maps, which are targeted at reducing average global carbon emissions to two degrees Celsius.
Acting President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, is expected to launch the innovative and alternative funding instrument at an event slated to hold next month in Lagos.
Italy faces a strategic opportunity to harness its financial system for sustainable development, according to “Financing the Future”, a new report released last week by Italy’s Ministry of Environment, Land and Sea (MATTM) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
Minister of the Environment of Italy, Gian Luca Galletti
The report is the result of a year-long national dialogue on greening Italy’s financial system, which received inputs from over 100 experts from banks, capital markets, insurers, investors, corporations, financial regulators, academics and civil society.
Italy’s Minister of the Environment, Gian Luca Galletti, said: “Strengthening the environmental dimension of finance is essential to deliver our goals for sustainable development and climate change. This report sets out a practical set of proposals to align risks and returns with the sustainability imperative.”
UNEP Executive Director, Erik Solheim, said: “With this dialogue, Italy is demonstrating real international leadership. We see more and more countries taking a systematic approach to financing sustainable development – and this report will be of immense value both within Italy and beyond.”
The Financing the Future report comes at a time of growing international momentum to mobilise private capital for sustainable development. In 2016, G20 heads of state for the first time recognised the need to “scale up green finance”. The issuance of green bonds in 2016 rose to $81 billion, almost double 2015 levels. Financial centres such as London and Paris set out their plans to seize the green finance opportunity. The European Commission has just launched a new process to develop a strategy to anchor sustainability in its financial regulations and policymaking.
This momentum is also at work in Italy, with a growing share of institutional investor assets incorporating environmental, social and governance factors. However, a range of barriers are preventing these and other promising developments from having a systematic impact. The report closes with a set of 18 options to scale up flows of green finance and improve risk management, including:
Use the opportunity of the Green Act, which is currently under discussion, to structure a national sustainable finance strategy.
Identify innovative mechanisms to increase access to green finance for small and medium enterprises.
Design new financial instruments to improve the energy efficiency of residential, commercial and public buildings.
Establish a national green bond development committee to expand the market.
Form a consortium of financial institutions, academics and public authorities to pilot environmental stress testing models.
Looking ahead, a National Observatory on Sustainable Finance is under consideration to continue the work started by the Dialogue.
Italy will also make green finance a theme of its G7 programme in 2017, examining the role of financial centres for sustainability and the needs of small and medium enterprises.
MATTM Director General for Sustainable Development, Francesco La Camera, said: “This report is not the end of a work, it is only a beginning: we must find a way to develop the options proposed by the report, so encouraging the financial system to shift resources towards sustainable projects and activities.”
Nick Robins, Co-Director of UNEP’s Financial System Inquiry, said: “Italy’s national dialogue on sustainable finance is a great example of a country taking a strategic perspective on mobilising capital for a greener economy. Not only has it produced a clear set of options for further action, but it has helped to create a community of practice in the financial sector and beyond that I committed to integrating environmental factors into financial decision-making.”
The report was released at a major event in Rome, co-hosted by Banca d’Italia and the Ministry of Economy and Finance, with speakers including Gian Luca Galletti, Erik Solhleim and Pier Carlo Padoan.
Failure to act now to make our food systems more resilient to climate change will “seriously compromise” food production in many regions and could doom to failure international efforts to end hunger and extreme poverty by 2030, Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Director-General, José Graziano da Silva, warned on Monday, February 13 2017.
Jose Graziano da Silva, Director General of the FAO
“Agriculture holds the key to solving two of the greatest problems now facing humanity: eradicating poverty and hunger, and contributing to maintaining the stable climatic conditions in which civilization can thrive,” he told participants at a roundtable on climate change during the World Government Summit in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The FAO boss stressed in particular the need to support smallholder farmers in the developing world adapt to climate change.
“The vast majority of the extremely poor and hungry depend on agriculture for their livelihoods, he said, adding: “They are the most vulnerable to the impacts of global warming and an unstable climate.”
Innovative approaches exist that can help them improve yields and build their resilience, he said, such as green manuring, greater use of nitrogen-fixing cover crops, improving sustainable soil management, agroforestry techniques, and integrating animal production into cropping systems.
“But farmers face major barriers, such as the lack of access to credit and markets, lack of knowledge and information, insecurity about land tenure, and high transaction costs of moving away from existing practices,” the Director-General noted.
He pointed to the fact that 70 countries do not have established meteorological services as an example. FAO is working with the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) to develop low-cost, farmer-friendly services to address this need.
To withstand the vagaries of a harsher, less predictable climate, small farmers will also need better access to other sorts of technologies and to markets, information and finance – as well as better land tenure and improved agriculture infrastructure, added Graziano da Silva.
Ultimately, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, he argued.
“Adaptation to climate change makes economic sense: the benefits of adaptation are much bigger than the costs,” the FAO Director-General said, while underlining the importance of national efforts like the UAE’s strategy on food diversification, security and climate change.
One critical front for action is water management, according to Graziano da Silva. Millions of the world’s small-scale farmers are already wrestling with water scarcity, which will likely intensify as a result of climate change, he said.
This is why, at the last UN climate change conference, FAO and partners launched a global framework on water scarcity in agriculture that aims to support developing countries in bringing stronger policies and programmes for the sustainable use of water in agriculture online.
Participating in the panel discussion “Climate in Action: Feeding the Future” along with Graziano da Silva were Tshering Tobgay, Prime Minister of Bhutan, Thani Al Zeyoudi, Minister of Climate Change and Environment of the United Arab Emirates, and Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
The World Government Summit (WGS) is a platform that brings together leaders and policy makers to showcase future trends in government services, leadership, innovation and economic policies.
The Department of Climate Change in the Federal Ministry of Environment in collaboration with the World Bank on Monday, February 13 2017 in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, held the first in a series of workshops for legislators; state government officials; ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs); and private sector players scheduled for the week.
Majorly focusing on climate change resilience, the Climate Change Knowledge Immersion Workshops will likewise take place in Kaduna (Kaduna State) and Abuja (the Federal Capital Territory).
The theme of the forum is: “Accelerating Climate-Resilient and Low-Carbon Development”.
Minister of State for Environment, Ibrahim Usman Jibril, at the workshop. For every tree you cut, plant 10 or 20, he saysGovernor of Ogun State, Ibikunle Amosun, delivering an open statementWorld Bank Practice Manager, Benoit Bosquet, presenting a paperProfessor of Chemistry at the University of Lagos, Akoka, Prof. Jide Alo, speaking at the Knowledge Immersion WorkshopDeputy Director, Department of Climate Change, Mrs Ini Obong Abiola-Awe (second right), in the company of staffers of the Nigeria Erosion and Water Management Project (NEWMAP) at the workshop
The Government of Fiji will be the president of the 23rd Climate Change Conference (COP23) to be held in Bonn. Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama has given high priority to COP23 and aims to continue the momentum for action since the entry into force of the Paris Climate Change Agreement last year.
Indigenes of Fiji in a music show
The entire region is highly vulnerable to climate change impacts. The London School of Economics estimates that, across the Pacific Islands, which is home to some 10 million people, up to 1.7 million could be displaced due to climate change by 2050. Yet Fiji, like all Pacific Island states, faces challenges in fully implementing government policies due to limited technical, human resource and financial capacities.
Support for adaptation and resilience-building, especially for the most vulnerable nations, is a priority. As a result, and next to other issues to be discussed at COP23, Prime Minister Bainimarama plans to prioritise finance for climate adaptation through the private sector.
Home to over 870,000 people in the central South Pacific Ocean, Fiji’s 300 volcanic islands include low-lying atolls, which are highly susceptible to cyclones and floods. Thus Fiji is no stranger to the devastation wrought by climate change.
Sea flooding is usually associated with the passage of tropical cyclones close to the coast. However, heavy swells, generated by deep depressions and/or intense high pressure systems some distance away from Fiji have also caused flooding to low-lying coastal areas.
In 2012, Vunidogoloa became the first village to begin relocating to higher ground due to sea-level rise.
Looking to the future, the impacts of climate change on Fiji will only increase.
According to a World Bank report, climate threats to Fiji’s society and economy include:
higher rates of disease as average temperatures rise;
increasingly destructive storms as oceans get warmer and weather patterns become more severe; and
disruptions to agriculture as the intrusion of saltwater damages existing farmland.
On Fiji’s main island of Viti Levu, these factors are expected to contribute to economic damages of up to $52 million per year, or roughly four percent of Fiji’s gross domestic product.
Addressing vulnerability is thus a key concern for the country and Fiji’s national policies are said to hold valuable lessons for all governments bracing for climate-induced population movements.
The Government is implementing projects to address vulnerability by increasing resilience. Projects include initiatives funded through the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and with support from numerous United Nations agencies.
Together with other highly vulnerable countries, Fiji is also a member of the Climate Vulnerable Forum.
In a fifth round of transparently sharing updates on achieving their 2020 emission reduction targets, 18 developed countries will present their achievements in implementing climate policies in May.
Bonn in Germany will host the the 46th Session of the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI), where 18 developed countries will present their achievements in implementing climate policies
Known as the “multilateral assessment”, the interactive implementation update will take place during the 46th Session of the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) in Bonn, Germany.
Among the 18 countries that will present updates are the United States of America, France and the Russian Federation.
The implementation updates involve an important preparatory stage, which includes an online question and answer period among Governments. To this end, actions and inputs from all Parties are needed in the next few months and can be submitted via the ‘MA Portal’.
Specifically, the timeline for the implementation update by developed countries is as follows:
1 to 28 February 2017: submission of questions by any Government to the 18 participating countries via the MA Portal.
1 March to 30 April 2017: Preparation and posting of answers by the participating countries via the MA Portal.
By 4 May 2017: showcasing of input received on the 18 individual country pages by the secretariat.
During SBI 46, May 2017, Bonn: interactive sharing of implementation updates by the 18 developed countries on progress towards emission reduction target;
July 2017: publication of country records, which include summary report on the multilateral assessment.
Previous rounds of implementation updates have created an atmosphere of trust and constructive exchange between Governments. They showed that majority of developed countries have made a very good progress towards decoupling their greenhouse gas emissions from economic growth.
Additionally, a number of Parties like the EU and Australia stated that they are on track to exceed their 2020 targets.
Reaping the benefits of transparency, countries recognised each other’s success stories and showed keen interest in scaling up and replicating policies and best practices.
The SBI is one of two permanent subsidiary bodies to the Convention established by the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC / Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (COP/CMP). It supports the work of the COP and the CMP through the assessment and review of the effective implementation of the Convention and its Kyoto Protocol. The SBI also advises the COP on budgetary and administrative matters.
The SBI/45 held in conjunction with COP22 last year in Marrakech, Morocco.
The secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is looking forward to hosting the 23rd Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP23) to the UNFCCC at its head offices in Bonn, Germany from 6-17 November 2017. The secretariat is said to be working in very close collaboration with the Government of Fiji, who will serve as the President of the Conferences and provide the political leadership to move forward international cooperation on climate change.
Germany’s former Parliament building, which now serves as a plenary for UNFCCC meetings as part of the Bonn World Conference Centre
The Government of Germany, as the host country of the secretariat, along with the City of Bonn and the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, are providing valuable moral, political and budgetary support to the organisation of this major international event.
The Government of Germany – Committed to Climate Action
The government of Germany hosted the first ever Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC in 1995 (COP1 in Berlin) and has been committed to supporting international climate action ever since. In addition, Germany has announced that it will make climate action a key focus of the G20 during its Presidency of the group, which runs until 30 November of this year.
The State of North Rhine Westphalia – Transitioning to the Green Economy
Bonn is located in North Rhine-Westphalia, which is Germany’s most populous state and in many ways a hub for climate protection. A number of cities in North Rhine-Westphalia have reportedly transitioned away from heavily polluting industries such as coal mining to high-tech and services industries. For example, the city of Essen holds the title of Europe’s “Green Capital” in 2017 for its success in shifting to a green economy. The title, awarded by the European Commission, recognises the fact that Essen, for example, procures renewable energy and has managed to exceed the German national average greenhouse gas emission reduction. During COP23, the German government and North Rhine-Westphalia intend to showcase further examples of climate protection and clean tech in the region.
The City of Bonn – a UN Hub for Sustainability
Bonn has been described as a hub for sustainability. The city is making efforts to reduce its carbon footprint by, for example, introducing electric buses. Bonn is home to 19 UN agencies which all deal with global topics of the future such as climate protection, desertification, water balance, soil and species protection. In addition, more than 150 international organisations are located around the UN hub in the Bonn region, implying that a network exists that provides synergies for work on the issue of sustainability as well as for related conferences and events. The main venue of COP23 will be the Bonn World Conference Centre, which will be complemented with temporary infrastructure in the vicinity.
At a daylong forum in Abuja on Friday, January 3, 2017 titled: “Stakeholders workshop on the progress so far made on development of Nigeria’s First Biennial Update Report (BUR)”, the country took stock of the BUR report to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
The BUR isone of the key elements in the global mitigation action and also an obligation on all parties to the Convention to prepare and submit, every two years, information on its emission of greenhouse gases (GHG) by sources and removal by sinks, while reporting the actions undertaken and support received.
Participants – including representatives of the consultants (Triple “E” Systems, E & Y and Millcon & Millcon) – agreed, among other resolutions, that the consultants should work closer together in other to produce a quality report and meet the deadline for its submission.
Dr Jare Adejuwon, chief executive officer at the Abuja-based Digital Environmental Management System, delivering a paper titled: “Essentials of Biennial Update Reports (BURs)”Prof. Jide Alo of the University of Lagos, AkokaPrince Lekan Fadina of the Centre for Investment, Sustainable Development, Management and Environment (CISME), LagosParticipants at the meetingMore participants
Incoming COP23 President, Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama of Fiji, in a recent message, says he will be totally focused on achieving the best possible outcome at the next global climate change summit, scheduled to hold November this year in Bonn, Germany
COP23 President and Prime Minister of Fiji, Frank Bainimarama
Bula vinaka! Wherever you are the world, I convey my warmest greetings, along with the greetings of the Fijian people.
Fiji assumes the Presidency of COP23 determined to maintain the momentum of the 2015 Paris Agreement and the concerted effort to reduce carbon emissions and lower the global temperature, which was reinforced at COP22 in Marrakesh.
To use a sporting analogy so beloved in our islands, the global community cannot afford to drop the ball on the decisive response agreed to in Paris to address the crisis of global warming that we all face, wherever we live on the planet. That ball is being passed to Fiji and I intend, as the first incoming COP president from a Small Island Developing State, to run with it as hard as I can.
We must again approach this year’s deliberations in Bonn as a team – every nation playing its part to combat the rising sea levels, extreme weather events and changing weather patterns associated with climate change. And I will be doing everything possible to keep the team that was assembled in Paris together and totally focused on the best possible outcome.
I intend to act as COP President on behalf of all 7.5 billion people on the planet. But I bring a particular perspective to these negotiations on behalf of some of those who are most vulnerable to the effects of climate change – Pacific Islanders and the residents of other SIDS (small island developing states) countries and low-lying areas of the world. Our concerns are the concerns of the entire world, given the scale of this crisis.
We must work together as a global community to increase the proportion of finance available for climate adaptation and resilience building. We need a greater effort to develop products and models to attract private sector participation in the area of adaptation finance. To this end, I will be engaging closely with governments, NGOs, charitable foundations, civil society and the business community.
I appeal to the entire world to support Fiji’s effort to continue building the global consensus to confront the greatest challenge of our age. We owe it not only to ourselves but to future generations to tackle this issue head on before it is too late. And I will be counting on that support all the way to Bonn and beyond.
In America, wind power has achieved its second strongest quarter ever for newly installed energy generating capacity, according to a new report released last Thursday (February 9, 2017) by the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA). Wind surpassed hydropower dams to become the largest source of renewable electric capacity in the U.S., and the fourth largest overall.
Business leaders from General Motors and the U.S. wind energy industry met Thursday morning to mark this historic milestone and release AWEA’s Fourth Quarter 2016 U.S. Wind Industry Market Report at General Motor’s Arlington Assembly Plant, which will soon be 100 percent wind-powered.
“American wind power is now the number one source of renewable capacity, thanks to more than 100,000 wind workers across all 50 states,” said Tom Kiernan, AWEA CEO. “Growing this made-in-the-USA clean energy resource helps rural communities pay for new roads, bridges, and schools, while bringing back manufacturing jobs to the Rust Belt. With our two-thirds cost reduction over the last seven years, household brands like General Motors, Walmart, and more are buying low-cost wind energy to cut costs and power their businesses. American wind power is on track to double our output over the next five years, and supply 10 percent of U.S. electricity by 2020.”
“With more wind energy production and more wind workers than any other state, if you want to know how wind works for America, just ask a Texan,” added Kiernan.
In a related development, it was gathered that wind farm developers installed more power than any other form of energy last year in Europe, helping turbines to overtake coal in terms of capacity, industry figures show.
In Europe, wind power grew 8 percent, to 153.7 gigawatts, comprising 16.7 percent of installed capacity and overtaking coal as the continent’s second-biggest potential source of energy, according to figures published last Thursday by the WindEurope trade group. Gas-fired generation retained the largest share of installed capacity.
With countries seeking to curb greenhouse gas emissions that causes climate change by replacing fossil fuel plants with new forms of renewable energy, investment in wind grew to a record 27.5 billion euros ($29.3 billion) in 2016, WindEurope’s annual European Statistics report showed.
At the close of 2016, the American wind fleet totaled 82,183 MW, enough to power 24 million average American homes. And with the addition of North Carolina’s first utility-scale wind farm announced last week, there are now more than 52,000 individual wind turbines in 41 states plus Guam and Puerto Rico.
GM’s Arlington Assembly Plant produces over 1,000 SUVs a day and is 50 percent powered by wind energy today. Starting in 2018, Arlington Assembly will be GM’s first plant to have all of its electricity needs met with wind energy. The company purchases energy from two Texas wind farms, RES’s Cactus Flats in Concho County and EDPR’s Los Mirasoles Wind Farm in Edinburg. Non-utility purchasers, like GM, Microsoft, and the Department of Defence, represent 39 percent of wind purchased through long-term contracts in 2016, totaling 1,574 megawatts (MW). More than half of that capacity is located in Texas.
“At GM, we’re committed to efforts in our facilities that create business value and strengthen communities where we live and work,” said Rob Threlkeld, GM global manager of renewable energy. “Using wind power delivers on this by securing more stable energy costs while reducing our impact on the environment.” While buying low-cost wind energy helps make other industries more competitive, building wind turbines is also big business in the U.S. The wind industry employs 25,000 Americans at over 500 factories in 43 states. This includes 40 wind manufacturing facilities across Texas. In 2016, at least seven companies across the U.S. expanded existing manufacturing facilities to meet growing orders, and GRI Renewable Industries opened a new tower facility in Amarillo, Texas.
“Wind and coal are on two ends of the spectrum,” said Oliver Joy, a spokesman for WindEurope, in an e-mail. “Wind is steadily adding new capacity while coal is decommissioning far more than any technology in Europe.”
The group underscored that wind, which only produces power intermittently, hasn’t yet overtaken coal share in total power generation.
European wind investment increased 5 percent in 2016 from a year earlier driven by the offshore segment that attracted 18.2 billion euros, the report said. That offset a 29 percent investment decline in the onshore market.
Over 100,000 American workers now manufacture, construct, and maintain the U.S. wind turbine fleet according to the U.S. Department of Energy. In total, wind supports more American jobs than nuclear, natural gas, coal, or hydroelectric power plants.
New growth in the fourth quarter of 2016, announced for the first time today, includes 6,478 MW, the second strongest quarter for U.S. wind power installations on record. For the year, wind developers added 8,203 MW of wind power capacity representing more than $13.8 billion in new investment. With 99 percent of wind projects located in rural areas, much of this investment is flowing to communities that need it most.
Rural and Rust Belt America are among the greatest beneficiaries of wind power development. Wind projects in these areas often become the largest contributors to the property tax base, helping to improve schools, roads and other public services. Of the $13.8 billion invested by the U.S. wind industry last year, $10.5 billion was invested in low-income counties.
Wind is a new drought-resistant cash crop for farmers and ranchers who host wind turbines on their land. Nationwide, wind projects provide private landowners with more than $245 million in land lease payments annually. Texas landowners receive more than $60 million of that, in many cases helping to keep farms and ranches in their families.
Wind power is in high demand from utilities and other buyers because it often provides the least expensive energy available. Wind power can bring costs down further and create American jobs thanks to policy stability that passed in 2015 with bipartisan support in Congress.
“Wind power isn’t a red or blue industry, it’s red, white and blue,” said Kiernan. “Low-cost, homegrown wind energy is something we can all agree on. States like Texas and Iowa are leading the way in terms of wind turbines and wind jobs.”
Texas is the undisputed leader in wind energy, with approximately three times more wind generating capacity than any other state and nearly a quarter of American wind jobs. The state continues to expand wind power, becoming the first state to pass 20,000 MW of wind capacity last year, which is roughly one-fourth of national capacity. More wind is on the way in Texas. Even with the 1,790 MW installed in the fourth quarter of 2016, there is still 5,401 MW under construction and another 1,288 MW in advanced development.
The Texas model for energy development stems from genuine commitment to an “all of the above” energy mix. Free markets allowed wind to prosper in Texas, creating a low-cost, balanced energy portfolio for the state. Texas has captured $38 billion in investment to date and supports up to 25,000 jobs today The state has also benefited from investment by corporate energy buyers who want to site data centres and factories close to the wind farms that power their facilities.
A key part of the success story in Texas has been a strong backbone of transmission infrastructure – the power lines that deliver all forms of energy to homes and businesses. Texas’s CREZ (Competitive Renewable Energy Zone) transmission lines and the state’s long-standing recognition that a strong grid is essential for a free market in electricity have become the national model for transmission investments that more than pay for themselves. Looking ahead, transmission projects like Pattern Development’s proposed Southern Cross Transmission Project will allow Texas to benefit by exporting its abundant wind energy to customers in the Southeast.
Wind power growth is now spreading up from Texas into the Plains states and across the Midwest. In fact, 89 percent of newly completed capacity in 2016 is found in these states. The U.S. offshore wind industry also launched in the fourth quarter of 2016 with the commissioning of the 30 MW Block Island Wind Farm off the coast of Rhode Island. Gulf Island Fabrication in Louisiana manufactured the foundations for the Block Island project, reflecting a broader opportunity for oil and gas suppliers to earn additional business in offshore wind.
As a result of the generating capacity of wind turbines in the U.S. standing at over 82,000 MW, greater than the 80,000 MW of hydropower generating capacity, wind power is now the fourth largest source of generating capacity, behind gas, coal, and nuclear.
