Abstract
Best Management Practices (BMPs) for risk retirement have been developed to assist with implementing OES-Environmental's risk retirement process and support consenting dialogues with regulators for the marine renewable energy (MRE) industry. BMPs are used in multiple industries, most commonly in water quality or resource management settings in the United States to support the regulatory process and proactively set approaches to minimize negative environmental impacts. The BMPs for risk retirement consist of a series of succinct statements that describe the optimal application of the risk retirement methods, written in a manner that is accessible and actionable for the MRE industry, regulators and advisors, and other stakeholders. The BMPs build off the information within Freeman et al. (2024) and Copping et al. (2020b) that provide details of the risk retirement process. They have been reviewed and iteratively improved by the OES-Environmental country analysts as well as by MRE developers who participated in an expert forum. The BMPs are intended to be used by MRE device or project developers with environmental expertise or by a third-party consultant or subject matter expert whose role is to evaluate environmental risks.