REN 21 Global Status Report 2012 - European focus

The findings in the REN21 2012 Global Status Report (GSR) speak to the cumulating effect of steady growth in renewable energy markets, support policies and investment over the past years. In 2011:

• Renewable sources supplied 16.7% of global final energy consumption. The share of modern renewables increased, while the share of traditional biomass slightly declined.
• 118 countries –more than half in the developing world– implemented RE targets.
• Investment in renewables increased 17% to a record $257 billion, despite a widening sovereign debt crisis in Europe and rapidly falling prices for renewable power equipment.
• Photovoltaic module prices dropped by 50% and onshore wind turbines by close to 10%, bringing the price of the leading renewable power technologies closer to grid parity with fossil fuels such as coal and gas.

A series of webinars will present the report and will provide regional focus. Go in depth and behind the scenes of the REN21 report with Christine Lins, Executive Director of REN21.

Mr Rainer Hinrichs-Rahlwes will provide regional focus for Europe in this session.

Christine Lins was appointed as Executive Secretary of REN21, the Renewable Energy Policy Network of the 21st Century, in July 2011. During the last 10 years, she served as Secretary General of the European Renewable Energy Council, the united voice of Europe’s renewable energy industry. Lins has more than 15 years of working experience in the field of renewable energy sources. Previously, she worked in a regional energy agency in Austria promoting energy efficiency and renewable energy sources. Lins holds a masters degree in international economics and applied languages.

Rainer Hinrichs-Rahlwes is the President of EREC, the European Renewable Energy Council, the umbrella organization of European renewable energy industry, trade and research associations. And he is the President of EREC’s member Association EREF, the European Renewable Energies Federation, the voice of independent producers of energy from renewable sources. He is a Board Member of the German Renewable Energy Federation (BEE). He is BEE’s Spokesperson European and international affairs, and he is the Chairman of BEE’s related working group.  From November 1998 to December 2005, he was a Director General in the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU), in charge of – among others – renewable energies and climate protection. He was one of the two chairmen of the International Steering Committee preparing the renewables2004-conference in Bonn. After the conference, he served as BMU’s representative and a co-chair and later a member of the Bureau of the Global Policy Network, now known as REN21.