Country Profile Webinar: Accelerating offshore wind and nature protection in the Netherlands

Introduction

RGI and the Offshore Coalition for Energy and Nature (OCEaN) advocate for an integrated approach to planning offshore wind, grid development, and nature conservation in European seas. This is crucial to achieve a sustainable energy transition. We emphasise the simultaneous consideration of energy targets and biodiversity goals, ensuring their incorporation into spatial planning.

Due to the urgent challenges posed by the energy, climate, and biodiversity crises, it is necessary to understand the varied approaches of different EU Member States (MSs) in accelerating the planning and permitting of offshore wind and grid, alongside nature protection and restoration.

To address this, OCEaN has organised a new webinar series which will highlight legal and regulatory frameworks within selected MSs related to offshore wind, grid and nature planning and permitting. The focus will be on understanding how they plan to accelerate and the interconnectedness of their frameworks with other European countries.

The first webinar in this series took place on Thursday 22 February 2024, where we dove into what policies, regulations and laws shape the Dutch approach to accelerating offshore wind in tandem with nature protection.