The Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) has responded to a government consultation on how compensation measures in response to harm to the marine environment from wind farms should be managed in Northern Ireland.
In the response, the OEP welcomes the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA)’s intention to tackle the nature and climate crises by maintaining existing environmental protections while improving compensatory measures for offshore wind.
But it identifies a number of areas for further consideration.
Helen Venn, the OEP’s Chief Regulatory Officer, said: “Compensation reforms and the use of the Marine Recovery Fund (MRF) across Northern Ireland’s waters could simultaneously enable the development of clean energy, while protecting and restoring the marine environment.
“While we continue to support in principle the concept of strategic compensatory measures and delivery through the MRF, there are risks to the environment and the potential challenges to Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) that we think should be addressed.”
The response welcomes a number of aspects of the proposals, including the role of the mitigation hierarchy - a step-by-step framework used in environmental planning and development to limit or compensate for negative impacts on biodiversity and ecosystems – and a Public Compensation Register.
It sets out areas for further consideration including:
- MPA network coherence
- UK wide alignment and cross-boundary issues
- Ensuring compensatory measures are additional to normal management practices
- Provision of guidance
It also calls on DAERA to be clear about how the proposals take into account the Environmental Principles Policy Statement (EPPS), which is now in place in Northern Ireland. This places a legal duty on departments to consider the potential positive and negative effects on the environment when developing policies.
The OEP has previously responded to consultations by Defra in England on similar proposals and raised similar points:
OEP response to Offshore Wind Compensation consultation | Office for Environmental Protection
OEP response to proposed Marine Recovery Fund | Office for Environmental Protection
