The Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) has welcomed the overall design and ambition of the proposed Marine Recovery Fund, but has identified a number of potential environmental risks.
Helen Venn, the OEP’s Chief Regulatory Officer, said: “As we highlight in our latest progress report on the Environmental Improvement Plan 2023, collective trends in the marine environment point to declining biodiversity and continued habitat degradation. This decline is amidst a backdrop of increasing pressures, including the expansion of offshore wind, which can have negative impacts during construction and subsequent operation.
“A clean power system is a prerequisite to achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, with offshore wind providing the backbone of the Government’s Clean Power Action Plan. The Marine Recovery Fund could become a significant enabling tool to simultaneously deliver a clean power system, while protecting the marine environment.
“We support the overall design and ambition of the MRF and find there are commendable aspects to the proposed approach such as the integration of monitoring, adaptive management, and the mitigation hierarchy.
“But we also identify a number of environmental risks associated with the proposals. Our observations are directed at further strengthening of the scheme, helping to ensure the expansion of offshore wind does not come at the expense of an already depleted marine environment.”
The OEP’s consultation response identifies three key areas where there are environmental risks associated with the proposals – how the fund will deliver compensation, cross-boundary issues and the role of delivery partners.
It also calls for greater transparency around how the duty to have regard to the Environmental Principles Policy Statement (EPPS) is informing development of the MRF and what that means for its role in achieving statutory targets and commitments set out in the Government’s Environmental Improvement Plan.
The full response can be downloaded by clicking on the blue button to the right of this page.
