Offshore wind: IUCN France calls for better consideration of impacts on biodiversity

IUCN France called on Wednesday 1 February for better consideration of the impacts on the environment and biodiversity in the planning of new offshore wind projects, the day after the adoption by the National Assembly of the draft law on acceleration of renewable energies.

“The energy transition must also be ecological by reconciling the development of renewable energies with the conservation of biodiversity”, declares Maud Lelièvre, president of the French Committee of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in a press release.

For this, the organization makes seven recommendations to the public authorities but also to the promoters of private renewable marine energy projects, in order to "take greater account of areas with biodiversity challenges in the choice of location" of such programs.

It also calls for "better treatment of the unitary and cumulative impacts of projects on species and ecosystems, through rigorous application of the ERC sequence (avoid, reduce, compensate)".

On Tuesday, the National Assembly gave its final green light to the renewable energy acceleration bill on Tuesday, before the final adoption expected in the Senate on February 7.

In February 2022, President Emmanuel Macron set the goal of providing France with around fifty offshore wind farms to "target 40 gigawatts in service by 2050".

The IUCN advocates in particular for better consideration of the cumulative effects of human activities on marine ecosystems when planning offshore wind projects.

"Offshore wind turbines have impacts on biodiversity depending on their type of structure (fixed or floating), their connection and the pressures they exert which can be of a physical, chemical and biological nature. They impact marine habitats as well as different species (sea and land birds, marine mammals, sea turtles, fish, crustaceans and other underwater flora and fauna)", she underlines.

And all the more so since these areas are already subject to other pressures such as pollution linked to agriculture or the effects of industrial fishing.

These recommendations "essential to achieve the good ecological state of the marine environment" join the 2030 objectives of the new Global Biodiversity Framework approved by the States in December 2022, recalls the IUCN.