Ørsted has set an aim for net-positive biodiversity impact from all of its new renewable energy projects from 2030 at the latest.

"Over the coming decades, the deployment of renewable energy must accelerate significantly to speed up the transformation of the world's energy systems to renewable energy and halt global warming. The build-out of green energy must go hand-in-hand with protection of natural habitats and wildlife, including in our oceans," said Mads Nipper, CEO of Ørsted.

A net-positive impact occurs when a project has an overall positive biodiversity impact due to active measures taken to offset potential biodiversity losses. When developing new projects, Ørsted will implement initiatives that ensure an overall net-positive contribution to natural ecosystems, habitats, and species in and around the company's new renewable energy projects in offshore wind, onshore wind, solar PV and energy storage, and renewable hydrogen.

However, one of the challenges to be solved is the lack of industry-wide standardised approaches to measure biodiversity impact. Especially working in offshore environments, which are more dynamic and variable due to the forces of oceans, it is more complex to establish a baseline and measure the change. Ørsted hopes to address this by helping build the Science Based Targets Network Corporate Engagement Program to develop nature science-based targets and advance long-term development of tools and guidance to measure its impact and dependencies on biodiversity, land, water, and oceans.

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