Abstract
For a healthy North Sea, it is important that climate change and the degradation of North Sea nature are addressed. To tackle the climate crisis, the Dutch government has committed itself to the EU climate objective of 55% CO2 reduction by 2030 compared to 1990. Therefore, in the coming years more offshore wind energy at sea will be realised. Currently, the capacity of Dutch wind farms is 2.5 gigawatt. The current planning predicts an increase to 21.5 gigawatt around 2030. In order to tackle the degradation of the North Sea nature, the Netherlands had to reach 'the good environmental status' by 2020, according to nature legislation: a state in which the sea is clean, healthy, productive, has great ecological diversity, and is used only sustainably.
According to The North Sea Foundation, offshore wind farms bring certain opportunities for underwater nature. There is relatively less (bottom) disturbance due to a ban on bottom trawl fisheries within Dutch wind farms. This offers opportunities for active nature enhancement and passive recovery. In addition, as the most important mitigation measure, Dutch wind farms are not being built in the most ecologically valuable areas, such as the Cleaver Bank and the Frisian Front. The government is setting up a major monitoring and research program with the aim of gathering the necessary knowledge so that the changing use of the North Sea remains within its ecological carrying capacity. This is guaranteed in the North Sea Agreement. A unique agreement between government, energy and nature stakeholders in which a new balance is found between the energy, nature and food transition, sparked by the arrival of wind farms at sea.
However, wind farms and their associated infrastructure also pose ecological risks. The most important risks have been identified in this report. The following challenges were found: 1) there are still many ecological knowledge gaps about the (cumulative) risks of offshore wind, especially in combination with other pressures, such as oil and gas, shipping, sand extraction and fisheries; 2) the necessity, methods and effect of mitigation measures have not yet been adequately mapped out; and 3) policy is already being drawn up for scaling up offshore wind after 2030, which means there does not seem to be time to implement the results of new studies in policy. There is a growing risk that the ambition for offshore wind will no longer fit within the ecological carrying capacity of the North Sea. As a result, the North Sea Foundation foresees a scenario in which the protection of North Sea nature and the attainment of climate targets will hinder each other.
Based in part on interviews with North Sea stakeholders, literature research, round table discussions and an expert session, the North Sea Foundation makes the following recommendations for policymakers:
- Accelerate the protection of valuable nature areas to make North Sea nature more robust for the upcoming industrialisation.
- Accelerate and increase research into the ecological impact, mitigation options and innovation of offshore wind farms and always apply the precautionary principle when knowledge gaps exist.
- Postpone further upscaling of offshore wind after 2030 until ecological research results show how this upscaling can be done responsibly.
- Develop an integral adaptive policy whereby decisions can be adjusted in a timely manner if ecological research results give reason to do so.
- Include potential multi-use at an early stage when designing future offshore wind farms.