GWEC and Informa join forces to create world leading wind energy events

Mumbai:  The Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC), the trade organisation representing the global wind industry, and Informa Markets, the world's leading global events and digital business, have announced a strategic long-term partnership that will create a series of world leading wind power and energy transition events from 2021 onwards. Informa's world-class expertise in organising live and digital events, will strongly propel GWEC's mission of developing new and emerging markets for wind energy, scale the industry's geographic footprint and foster dynamic debates among global stakeholders.

GWEC and Informa Markets are joining forces ahead of what is expected to be a record growth year for the wind industry. Planned events in 2021 will convene the international wind industry with policymakers and climate leaders in the lead-up to the crucial COP26 Conference, reinforcing the role of wind energy in achieving Nationally Determined Contributions and net-zero commitments in line with the Paris Agreement. These events also present an opportunity for industry and governments in critical climate action regions to discuss green economic recovery from COVID-19 and pathways to 'build back better'.

The partnership capitalises on the immense growth of the wind industry in recent years, and the step change required in investment and supportive policy to deploy the necessary volumes of wind energy to meet decarbonisation scenarios and keep global warming below 1.5°C pre-industrial levels. The global wind industry is on-track to achieve record growth over the next five years with over 348 GW expected to be installed between 2020-2024, bringing total global wind power capacity to nearly 1,000 GW by the end of 2024, which is an increase of 54 per cent for total wind power installations compared to 2019.

Ben Backwell, CEO of GWEC, stated: "Events play a crucial role in bringing together investors, government and the supply chain to grow the wind industry around the world. This partnership between GWEC and Informa Markets will allow us to carry out an acceleration in terms of scale and footprint, allowing us to create world leading conferences and events in key regions such as Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and Africa."

Peter Hall, President EMEA at Informa Markets said, "We are very excited to develop this long-term partnership with GWEC, which will combine our experience for delivering leading international B2B trade events and media platforms, with GWEC's deep understanding, insights and relationships within the global wind sector. We look forward to building out a series of wind events across key regions to support the required needs and targets of the wind sector. This partnership further supports our commitment to driving sustainability and helping to drive the energy transition to a more sustainable future."

The schedule of events for 2021 aims to build on Informa Markets' existing live events and digital expertise in the sector and GWEC's ongoing market development work in emerging markets for renewable energy as is already the case with Brazil WindPower, Latin America's largest wind event co-organised yearly by GWEC and Informa. This will enable the scaling of these efforts to a regional level, convening a wider group of stakeholders across industry, corporate buyers, financiers, government and climate leaders.

It will also see GWEC and Informa Markets hold a landmark Global Net-Zero Summit, to bring together a wide array of stakeholders including corporates and policy makers ahead of the COP26 Conference.

Gareth Rapley, Group Director at Informa Markets commented, "As we have seen through 2020, there is an increased commitment from governments such as China, Japan, South Korea and recently the U.K's 10 point plan towards a green recovery, along with leading businesses to achieve Net-Zero targets. We are excited to play our role in partnership with GWEC, to help drive these plans forward and into action."