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Biodiversity offsets for offshore wind farm projects: The current situation in Europe

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  • Vaissière, Anne-Charlotte
  • Levrel, Harold
  • Pioch, Sylvain
  • Carlier, Antoine

Abstract

The European Union׳s energy policy aims to increase the proportion of energy derived from renewable sources in Europe. Marine renewable energy, offshore wind energy especially, contributes to the renewable energy mix. Offshore wind farms appear to be clean, and are supported by governments and NGOs as a way to reduce the use of conventional energy resources and thus decrease greenhouse gas emissions. However, developing infrastructure in marine areas can impact marine ecosystems. European directives ask offshore wind farm developers to carry out an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) including a mitigation hierarchy, i.e. envisaging measures that would avoid, reduce, and if possible offset significant adverse effects on ecosystems and human activities. This paper reviews EIA reports from seven European countries and is focused on impacts on the open water marine environment. According to the reports, measures have been taken for avoiding and reducing impacts, so there should be no significant negative residual impacts and hence no need of offsets. But the mitigation hierarchy for ecological impacts seems to have been incompletely implemented, because it is unlikely that there are no significant residual impacts. The paper proposes some technical and ecological explanations, followed by some governance and social explanations, for the absence of biodiversity offsets.

Suggested Citation

  • Vaissière, Anne-Charlotte & Levrel, Harold & Pioch, Sylvain & Carlier, Antoine, 2014. "Biodiversity offsets for offshore wind farm projects: The current situation in Europe," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 172-183.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:marpol:v:48:y:2014:i:c:p:172-183
    DOI: 10.1016/j.marpol.2014.03.023
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    6. Kyriazi, Zacharoula & Maes, Frank & Degraer, Steven, 2016. "Coexistence dilemmas in European marine spatial planning practices. The case of marine renewables and marine protected areas," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 391-399.
    7. Soares-Ramos, Emanuel P.P. & de Oliveira-Assis, Lais & Sarrias-Mena, Raúl & Fernández-Ramírez, Luis M., 2020. "Current status and future trends of offshore wind power in Europe," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 202(C).
    8. Chee Sze Yan & Siow Chun Lim & Chan Kah Yoong, 2022. "Potential of Small-wind Turbine for Power Generation on Offshore Oil and Gas Platforms in Malaysia," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 12(6), pages 272-282, November.
    9. Jianchang Lu & Weiguo Fan & Ming Meng, 2015. "Empirical Research on China’s Carbon Productivity Decomposition Model Based on Multi-Dimensional Factors," Energies, MDPI, vol. 8(4), pages 1-25, April.
    10. Jacob, Céline & Vaissiere, Anne-Charlotte & Bas, Adeline & Calvet, Coralie, 2016. "Investigating the inclusion of ecosystem services in biodiversity offsetting," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 21(PA), pages 92-102.
    11. Gasparatos, Alexandros & Doll, Christopher N.H. & Esteban, Miguel & Ahmed, Abubakari & Olang, Tabitha A., 2017. "Renewable energy and biodiversity: Implications for transitioning to a Green Economy," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 161-184.
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