Financing marine restoration through offshore wind investments

Abstract

Offshore wind farms (OWFs) are proliferating globally across marine ecosystems. We argue that alongside traditional avoidance, mitigation, compensation, and offsetting measures to reduce project-level OWF impacts, allocating a small percentage of OWF investments to marine restoration as a licensing fee for using marine space would catalyze large-scale marine restoration. This involves establishing large marine-protected areas and implementing active ecosystem restoration to help recover key habitats and species. Allocating just 1%-5% of the projected US$6 trillion global offshore wind farm investments by 2050 to marine conservation and restoration could have a powerful impact, creating a historic opportunity to achieve biodiversity goals on time.