Abstract
Offshore wind farms (OWFs) are proliferating globally across marine ecosystems. We argue that alongside traditional avoidance, mitigation, compensation, and offsetting measures to reduce project-level OWF impacts, allocating a small percentage of OWF investments to marine restoration as a licensing fee for using marine space would catalyze large-scale marine restoration. This involves establishing large marine-protected areas and implementing active ecosystem restoration to help recover key habitats and species. Allocating just 1%–5% of the projected US$6 trillion global offshore wind farm investments by 2050 to marine conservation and restoration could have a powerful impact, creating a historic opportunity to achieve biodiversity goals on time.