Last week I touched on the opportunity for rural landowners to gain new income streams from energy farming.

The role of wind turbines in energy farming will be significant.  The government see wind as being central to meeting its strategic goal of 90% renewable electricity generation by 2025.  The wind industry body, NZ Wind Energy Association, are clear about their goal for 20% of the countries’ generation to be from wind turbines by 2030, up from today’s 4%.

That article resulted in some comments about the acceptability of more wind farms.

Last Year, the General Assembly of the United Nations declared 2012 to be the International Year of Sustainable Energy for All. They are encouraging member states and international organizations to undertake initiatives that will create enabling environments for "...the use of new and renewable energy technologies."

The New Zealand Government has done a lot to give weight to this UN declaration.  The "New Zealand Energy Strategy", published in early 2011, lays out how we will get the most out of our energy potential.

The Broadband Commission is an initiative of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), an agency of the United Nations.  One of their roles is to promote the roll-out of high speed broadband, particularly as a means of improving for the well-being of people in developing countries. 

Early in April, the Broadband Commission released a report, titled 'The Broadband Bridge', that links Information and Computer Technology (ICT) with climate change.  Not as a cause of climate change, but as a means for climate action to achieve a low-carbon economy.

Whether you individually believe that man is causing global warming or not does not matter.  That our climate is changing is clear, the only issue is, what are we going to do about it?