Numerous strategies have been implemented globally for consenting/permitting marine renewable energy (MRE) projects, such as risk retirement, adaptive management, and marine spatial planning. Risk retirement allows for potential risks that are unlikely to cause harm to be retired and for available data and information to be applied to investigate potential environmental effects from similar new MRE projects. Adaptive management takes uncertainty into account, enabling MRE projects to be consented and increasing knowledge over time. Marine spatial planning is an approach to managing multiple marine activities with the goal of reducing conflicts amongst users, balancing environmental, social, and economic interests. Chapter 6 of the 2024 SoS outlines examples of these processes, tools, and strategies used for aiding consenting processes and examining environmental effects of MRE, with a focus on risk retirement.
This Short Science Summary was developed based on the OES-Environmental 2024 State of the Science Report: Environmental Effects of Marine Renewable Energy Development Around the World, specifically Chapter 6: Strategies to Aid Consenting Processes for Marine Renewable Energy.