Abstract
To address the urgent and interlinked crises of climate change and biodiversity loss, a whole-of-society approach is critical to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the Sustainable Development Goals. The renewable energy sector has a considerable opportunity to contribute by reducing carbon emissions to mitigate the impacts of climate change, by halting and reversing biodiversity loss by 2030, and to achieve full recovery by 2050 by contributing to Nature-Positive.
To deliver the global goal of Nature-Positive, would require companies to mainstream nature and biodiversity within the entire renewable energy value chain, including mining, infrastructure development planning and siting, construction, operation, maintenance and decommissioning.
Companies in the renewable energy sector would need to incorporate strict sequential and iterative adherence to the mitigation hierarchy to address their direct impacts and those of associated industries. Priority should be given to developments that improve energy efficiency and promote energy conservation and sufficiency. Additional development following this should prioritise avoidance of any impact, followed by minimisation of impact, restoration and rehabilitation, and using offsetting only as the last resort when all the other steps have been sequentially followed.
Historic, cumulative and indirect impact should also be addressed through the mitigation hierarchy. Once all impacts associated with a company’s operations have been ameliorated, additional benefits can be pursued through proactive conservation measures within and beyond individual project sites.
Other stakeholders, such as governments, lenders and civil society organisations, play a crucial role in this endeavour towards delivering the Nature-Positive goal by collaborating with the various actors and stakeholders within the renewable energy sector. This white paper outlines the steps necessary by which the energy sector could contribute to Nature-Positive.