A group of Nordic companies and research institutes have banded together to launch a project aimed at developing a biodiversity credit methodology for the offshore wind sector in the Baltic Sea.
Stockholm-headquartered renewable energy developer OX2 has partnered with the Research Institutes of Sweden (RISE) and the Swedish University of Agricultural Science (SLU), with plans to have the methodology ready by the end of next year.
Under the initiative, co-funded by Nordic Innovation, Aaland Islands environmental startup Under Ytan and Finnish startup Nemo Seafarms will pilot biodiversity monitoring to assess species composition and lay the groundwork for marine restoration activities in the project area.
Dubbed Nordic BioBuz, the project will focus on a 600 square kilometre area 15 km off the northern coast of Aaland Islands, which will be auctioned next year, with OX2 among the companies seeking to secure the tender.
“Regardless of the auction outcome, our aim is to devise a business model that fits the offshore wind sector not only within that specific area, but in the entire Baltic Sea region,” Joel Lindholm, CEO and co-founder of Under Ytan, told Carbon Pulse.
Lindholm said biodiversity credits would be part of a wider approach, known as multi-use, whereby the offshore developer adds different features to the windmill park area, including aquaculture, to generate additional value.
“Our preliminary research found that multi-use might not be profitable with only seaweed or mussel farming in this area,” he said.
“So we decided to incorporate ecosystem-enhancing services and biodiversity credits into the project’s structure to see if we can generate more profitability and make this a viable business model.”
MONITORING TECHNIQUES
Biodiversity monitoring in the project area will initially leverage direct observation, GoPro filming, and environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling, though additional techniques may be integrated during the course of the project.
The biodiversity credit methodology will take into account both ecosystem and species improvements, with a focus on blue mussels and seaweed species that are key to the Baltic Sea marine habitat, such as the bladder wrack.
“Nonetheless, we have to take the whole ecosystem into consideration to understand what kind of species we can focus on in order to generate a positive impact on ecosystem services in the area,” said Lindholm.
“We also need to do some modelling for the future based on existing studies. What will the Baltic Sea ecosystem look like in 2050 with rising temperatures? We might not even have blue mussels or seaweed, for example. There might also be an increase in invasive species due to climate change or shipping intensification. All these variables must be examined very carefully.”
While the project will initially focus on the offshore wind sector, Lindholm said this model could apply to other marine infrastructure closer to coastal areas, arguing that legislation is set to play a critical role in boosting demand for credits.
The EU’s newly adopted Nature Restoration Law, which aims to restore at least 30% of the bloc’s habitat types and 20% of its land and sea areas by 2030, can be a major boost, but additional incentives could come from national regulation, according to Lindholm.
“We’re seeing an increasing pressure to legislate on offshore wind companies and other marine infrastructure developers. If these firms have some solutions already developed, they will have a strong advantage,” Lindholm said.
“Our priority is to create a robust and credible model. It will be a challenging task, but we’re on the right path.”
Recently, some early initiatives have emerged to enable governments to generate marine biodiversity credits from protected areas and mobilise financing towards ocean protection.
However, voluntary crediting frameworks across marine ecosystems have largely failed to expand so far, mainly due to measurement and jurisdictional issues.
By Sergio Colombo – sergio@carbon-pulse.com
*** Click here to sign up to our twice-weekly biodiversity newsletter ***
