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We are nearing the last quarter of 2017 and this year (like the previous one) has set new records within the growing list of climate impacts globally. Recently our news feeds were packed with the unprecedented intensity of North America’s Atlantic hurricane season. Many Caribbean countries were severely impacted by hurricanes like Irma and they will likely have to face more before the end of the year. Even the Economist wrote about how the Caribbean region must ‘adapt to climate change before it could rebuild’1. On the other side of the planet, this summer the South Asian region, home to over 1.7 billion people, grappled with heavy flooding across several of its nations during the monsoon period. The unprecedented flooding led to a loss of hundreds of lives in its wake2. In April 2017, the NSIDC published that the 2017 Arctic maximum was the lowest in the 38-year satellite record-keeping history, for the third straight year3. Carbon dioxide concentrations have skyrocketed over the past two years. In April this year, the Mauna Loa Observatory recorded its first-ever carbon dioxide reading in excess of 410 parts per million4 – a level the planet has not witnessed in millions of years. These carbon dioxide concentrations are way beyond the ‘safe’ range. Within this new and complex political and environmental reality, the solutions for addressing the escalating climate impacts are now in even more critical need of implementation. The costs of extreme weather events are already pushing government aid agencies to their limits, even in SHRUTI SHUKLA, DIRECTOR, POLICY AND GLOBAL PROJECTS, GLOBAL WIND ENERGY COUNCIL (GWEC)WIND ENERGY’S VITAL ROLE IN THIS CHANGING CLIMATE 046 SUSTAINABLE ENERGY