News Release from World Wind Energy Association e.V. (WWEA)

Wind Industry Profile of

World Wind Energy Association e.V. (WWEA)

06/03/2019

Bonn Community Power Declaration

We, the participants of the 4th International Community Wind Symposium & Community Power Forum, have gathered in Bonn on 28 & 29 May under the theme “Shaping the Energy Transition – Strength through Alliances”.

Building on the predecessor events and in particular on the Fukushima Community Power Declaration, the Community Power for All! resolution and the Bamako Community Power Declaration, we underline the urgency of a rapid switch to a renewable energy future, based on a fair and equal distribution of wealth and prosperity.

Every day, we understand more the urging pressure to act on climate change and to counter the growing disparity amongst people around the world. A 100% renewable energy supply and community power are the primary answers to these two challenges.

At the same time, we notice with growing concern that there are increasing barriers against the rapid growth of renewable energy globally, e.g. through the introduction of auctions in the renewable power sector which represents an insurmountable hurdle, together with additional barriers in form of restrictive permission rules and manifold other forms of discrimination and exclusion from fair market access.

In spite of the growing difficulties, we notice an encouraging growth of the renewable energy and community power movement around the world, we highly appreciate that community power has become a topic on national and international agenda and we welcome the growing international community power networking and international solidarity of the community power community.

In light of the urgency of the situation, we call on decision makers on all levels of society:

to prioritise renewable energy and community power as cornerstones of a sustainable world
to recognise the utilisation of renewable energy in all its forms, including for self-consumption, as a basic human right
accordingly, to remove all barriers against the utilisation of renewable energy and against community ownership models, in particular counterproductive policies such as auctions
to enable communities around the world to play an active role and to work together
to amend basic legislation and include the basic right to use renewable energy and the priority for renewable energy in the overarching legal frameworks, including climate change legislation and constitutional law

Bonn, 29 May 2019