Energy Transition

GWEC signs MoU with The Copper Mark

11 December, 2025

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11 December 2025, Lisbon | The Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with The Copper Mark to advance responsible production and responsible sourcing of key critical minerals for the clean energy transition.

Wind energy must scale at unprecedented speed to meet global climate goals. More than 2,700 GW of total installed wind capacity will be needed by 2030 to triple today’s fleet. Delivering this growth requires supply chains that are resilient, sustainable, and grounded in transparency and accountability. It also demands close coordination between industries and harmonisation with internationally recognised sustainability frameworks, such as The Copper Mark’s suite of standards and assurance for sites across mineral and metal value chains.

Copper is fundamental to the wind energy value chain. Ensuring that its production and trade uphold high environmental and social standards is essential for building a credible, responsible, and future-proof wind energy sector. Through this MoU, GWEC and the Copper Mark will collaborate to share expertise, deepen engagement across their respective networks, and explore opportunities to support responsible value chains for wind energy.

The partnership will also support closer alignment between the wind energy sector and leading assurance frameworks while contributing to GWEC’s broader work under the Wind Sustainability Initiative (WSI) to promote harmonised and credible ESG and traceability standards across the global wind value chain.

“Building responsible and resilient supply chains is foundational to delivering the global energy transition.”

“Our collaboration with the Copper Mark strengthens the bridge between wind energy and responsible mineral production and supports the industry’s commitment to transparency.”

Stewart Mullin, GWEC Chief Industry Officer

“This agreement presents a great opportunity for collaboration between GWEC’s members in the wind energy sector the Copper Mark’s Participants and Partners across metal value chains. Building these relationships is critical to enable a future with responsibly produced wind energy,”

Michèle Brülhart, Executive Director of The Copper Mark

About The Copper Mark

The Copper Mark is the leading assurance framework to promote responsible practices across the copper, molybdenum, nickel and zinc value chains. The organisation works with companies and organisations throughout these metals’ value chains to enable them to better understand and meet the increasing demands for independently verified responsible practices, and to contribute positively to sustainable development.

Learn more about the Copper Mark

About GWEC

Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) is a member-based organisation that represents the entire wind energy sector. The members of GWEC represent over 1,500 companies, organisations and institutions in more than 80 countries, including manufacturers, developers, component suppliers, research institutes, national wind and renewables associations, electricity providers, finance and insurance companies.

Learn more about GWEC