Biodiversity Problems, Solutions for the Energy Sector – Euractiv

The European energy sector’s commitment to biodiversity is not only a moral obligation, but a pragmatic strategy to ensure the sustainability of projects, reduce consent risks and achieve greater public acceptance.

Kristian Ruby is Secretary General of Eurelectric.

Meanwhile, the climate crisis remains an existential threat to humanity AND biodiversity, requiring massive electrification and a massive expansion of energy infrastructure to combat it. The EU energy industry stands at the crossroads of these challenges.

However, combating climate change and biodiversity loss are not mutually exclusive goals. With climate change set to become a major driver of biodiversity loss, the energy sector has a key role to play in addressing both challenges simultaneously, rather than in silos.

Understanding the urgency of the situation means understanding the devastating consequences that civilization faces if neither climate change nor biodiversity are adequately addressed. And so our PowerPlant project blossomed into life.

Why biodiversity is important

Biodiversity – the variety of life on Earth – underpins the health of our ecosystems and, ultimately, our economies and societies. Ecological processes such as pollination, water purification and carbon sequestration are essential to our basic needs and well-being. Their loss can lead to serious repercussions, such as growing food insecurity, an increase in natural disasters and the exacerbation of the effects of climate change across all sectors of the economy.

The accelerating decline in biodiversity, caused by habitat loss, pollution, climate change, and overexploitation, is not just an environmental problem—it is a socioeconomic problem. The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) reports that up to 1 million species will become extinct in the next few decades. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has found that global wildlife populations have already declined by at least 69% since 1970.

The good news is that renewable-based decarbonisation can reduce these threats to biodiversity by up to 75% globally. This statistic underlines the synergy between renewable energy deployment and biodiversity protection. The dual climate and nature crisis requires integrated solutions. Eurelectric’s recently released first-of-its-kind biodiversity guideline “Power Plant 2.0: A Guide to Electrification in Harmony with Nature” underlines this very point.

How the energy sector integrates biodiversity

The first step to understanding how to integrate nature-sensitive practices is a clear strategy and a step-by-step approach that limits as much as possible the negative impacts on biodiversity. In fact, any developer of renewable and grid infrastructure should prioritize measures that first avoid negative impacts on biodiversity from the outset, then minimize, restore and finally compensate for any remaining impacts. This “mitigation hierarchy” is the cornerstone of our biodiversity guidelines.

Proper siting of renewable energy projects is also essential because it can bring the greatest benefits to nature from the outset. In particular, developers should avoid ecologically sensitive areas and prioritize degraded land, brownfields, and other areas of low biodiversity value.

Challenges and solutions

Implementing such principles will not be without challenges. The costs of integrating biodiversity measures can be high and there is currently a lack of harmonised approaches across EU Member States. Furthermore, the lack of quantitative data on measuring biodiversity impacts complicates efforts to effectively assess and monitor biodiversity outcomes across projects.

To meet these challenges, European policymakers should ensure:

1. Implementing the 2030 Climate and Energy Framework: There is a clear need to accelerate action on renewable energy sources and infrastructure. Agreed European policies must be implemented as a matter of priority.
2. Financial incentives: Introduce fiscal incentives and financing mechanisms to support biodiversity-friendly renewable energy projects. This should include the allocation of European funds for biodiversity-integrated grid lighthouse projects, pragmatic ecological non-price criteria for renewable energy auctions and fiscal incentives for recipients of Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs).
3. EU Framework for Integrating Biodiversity across Sectors: This includes promoting the mitigation hierarchy in energy and spatial planning, harmonising biodiversity integration terminology and measurement approaches, and facilitating reporting on biodiversity impacts.
4. Better understanding the interactions between ecosystems, infrastructure and people: Strategies that can be used to improve this situation include supporting targeted research and increasing EU funding to fill knowledge gaps, launching a campaign to address the green skills gap and establishing an EU competence centre for green energy transition.

The way forward

It is time for renewable energy projects to take the lead in protecting biodiversity. Many have already started.

The VERBUND LIFE projects in Austria and Germany are some of the best examples of how good biodiversity practices can increase species conservation while also supporting renewable energy production – in this case, hydropower. Verbund built a 14-kilometre branch system along the Danube to help fish migration routes that would otherwise be obstructed by a hydroelectric dam.

Griffin Wind Farm in Scotland, with its comprehensive habitat management plan, is another example. With 68 turbines located in the Scottish Highlands, the ESB planted 14,000 native trees and undertaken several other actions that led to a 66% increase in biodiversity compared to pre-construction baseline levels.

Another great example is the Statkraft Talayuela solar project in Spain, which is one of the largest photovoltaic (PV) farms in all of Europe. It uses next-generation technologies and construction techniques that minimize the impact on the land and fauna. One such technique is the use of structural piles during the installation of the panels to avoid the use of concrete.

But more is needed. A concerted effort by policymakers, industry leaders and society at large is still needed to implement such a synergistic approach on a sector-wide scale.

Engaging the European energy sector with biodiversity is not only a moral obligation, but a pragmatic strategy to ensure project sustainability, reduce consent risks and achieve greater public acceptance. By integrating biodiversity into renewable energy projects, we can achieve a win-win scenario that supports both our climate goals and the preservation of our natural heritage.

It is time for policymakers to recognise the energy sector as a partner in this endeavour and create a supportive framework that will enable us to protect and restore biodiversity while driving Europe’s green future.