Session A.7: Renewables

Peter Neville-Jones, URS

The approach proposed appears to be likely to result in negative environmental impacts. Will this apply to the decommissioning of offshore structures, that may require the destruction of the marine ecosystem that will have established itself during the 20 or more years life of the structure?

Reply by I Reach

The findings presented in the talk are based on the current ‘position’ of the statutory nature conservation bodies. Their existing advice is that at the decommissioning of a project, the marine ecosystem and associated habitats should be ‘restored’ or ‘remediated’ to a condition similar to the pre-construction baseline. This is especially the case where alteration from a pre-existing sediment ecosystem to one supported by hard substrate has occurred.