FINALLY MAJOR NATIONS FORM CONSORTIUM TO TACKLE CLIMATE CRISIS.
Leaders from European countries surrounding the North Sea pledged to rapidly scale up offshore wind power generation in the region to strengthen energy security, at a summit in Ostend, Belgium. Leaders from seven European Union countries, including France, Germany and the Netherlands, alongside non-EU countries Norway and Britain pledged to speed up their buildout of wind farms, develop “energy islands” – or connected renewable generation sites at sea – and work on carbon capture and renewable hydrogen projects in the region. In a joint statement, the countries’ leaders said they would aim for a combined 120 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind capacity by 2030 in the North Sea and northern seas including the Irish sea, and 300GW by 2050.That would more than quadruple the countries’ 25GW of existing North Sea wind capacity. Belgium, Denmark and Ireland plus Luxembourg, which does not have a coast, also signed the pledge.
Before the channel tunnel was built a similar proposal was put forward by a Dutch group to build a 2sq. km. island central in the English channel with a bridge to France and tunnel to England. the proposal was for power projects, industrial ports and container storage. This was before the climate crisis but would have been a very useful project for later developments. It was rejected by the then Thatcher government.
