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Allocating just 1 per cent of the global offshore wind investments from now until 2050, which are projected to be USD 6 trillion (approximately EUR 5.1 trillion), to marine conservation and restoration could restore millions of square kilometres of marine ecosystems, a new international study has found.
The scientists who conducted the study have urged governments to mandate, through licensing conditions or non-price criteria in tendering, that a fixed percentage of project investments be allocated to marine biodiversity.
Conducted by a team of international scientists led by The Rich North Sea programme and the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ), the study underlines that key global nature preservation and restoration goals, including the UN target to restore 30 per cent of degraded ecosystems by 2030, are slipping out of reach due to a lack of funding and political will.
With offshore wind already having nature enhancement projects, and a few tenders already bringing forward integrated nature-inclusive offshore wind projects, the authors point out that the sector is well-positioned to be the frontrunner in mitigating climate change while rebuilding marine life on a large scale.
“Offshore wind has a unique opportunity to not only support the energy transition but also become the first marine industry to make a real nature-positive contribution to large-scale ecosystem restoration” , said lead author of the study, Christiaan van Sluis from The Rich North Sea programme.
Van Sluis added that biodiversity loss could be reversed with just a fraction of the total investment if smart biodiversity requirements were embedded in offshore wind licensing and tendering procedures now.