How wind projects can make a Net Positive Impact on biodiversity - 5 key steps

Offshore wind is critical to the energy transition and the pace of development is accelerating. It is crucial this does not happen at the expense of nature, and there are increasingly ambitions for wind projects to have a Net Positive Impact (NPI) on biodiversity. While this sounds a simple concept (and, importantly, different from the emerging ‘nature positive’ concept), it conceals a significant amount of complexity and challenges – some specific to offshore wind and some common to biodiversity management and mitigation in general.

So - what are some of the key steps and actions needed to demonstrate project-level NPI for biodiversity, and what are the challenges? In brief:

1. Define what features will be tracked: NPI for every single biodiversity feature is not likely to be practical or feasible, so projects will need to complete some form of prioritisation to define the features of importance. Priority features could be identified by conservation status, stakeholder importance, or sensitivity to impacts. Then the decision is whether the NPI objective applies to all priority features, or to a subset (e.g., those with significant residual impacts).

2. Set a metric and sampling or monitoring approach for each feature: This is likely to be different for each feature, although proxies could be useful for some groups of similar species. Commonly used metrics include area, or area*quality, and number of individuals, but what about more challenging situations like when projects may impact species’ migration routes?

3. Establish baseline conditions: This may require targeted surveys or use of existing datasets, depending on the feature. Baseline conditions need to be established for both the negatively-impacted population and the places where positive actions (i.e., offsets) are likely to be implemented – noting these may be in very different areas.

4. Be transparent about how to deal with ‘impossibilities and uncertainties’: That is, features for which impacts or gains cannot be meaningfully quantified, which have large uncertainties, or for which gains are not feasible. How should these cases be addressed and incorporated into an NPI commitment?

5. Define a process for aggregating and reporting on results, both to determine when project-level NPI has been achieved, and, where relevant, determining when corporate-level NPI has been achieved based on aggregating project results from across a portfolio. Does project-level NPI mean NPI for all features or for a majority? Is impact significance or sensitivity a factor, and should any weightings be applied? Being clear on what can be claimed, and when, is essential for credibility, reporting and disclosure.

Stakeholder engagement is fundamental to each of these steps and for working through the challenges.

The Biodiversity Consultancy are actively engaged in thinking through these challenges to find pragmatic and practical solutions and support clients on their pathways to NPI.

To find out more go to www.thebiodiversityconsultancy.com