Best Practice Guidelines: Consultation for Offshore Wind Energy Developments

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• Best Practice Guidelines Consultation for
  Offshore Wind Energy Developments
• Russell Marsh, WWF-UK
• www.wwf.org.uk

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Why Consult

• Onshore developments experienced strong
  opposition
• Offshore wind is a new industry - full impacts
  unknown
• Formal consents process less developed than for
  onshore wind
• Early, effective consultation with all interested
  parties important

3
The Guidelines

• Initiated by the BWEA - web based process run by
  Dialogue by Design
• Used consensus building process
• Final product supported by large number of
  organisations including WWF

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JNAPC
5
The Guidelines

• Outline the importance of effective consultation
  for offshore wind development
• Present a number of tools to help design the
  process
• Who are the stakeholders
• Consultation process
• Techniques

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Effective Consultation

• Enable all stakeholders to make known their
  views and to work together to ensure they are
  addressed

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Effective Consultation

• Principles
• Inclusive
• Equality
• Responsibility
• Transparent

8
The Stakeholders?

• Impossible to provide an exhaustive list but will
  include
• Statutory consultees
• Strategic stakeholders
• Community stakeholders
• Community stakeholders more difficult to define
  but potentially most important

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• Consultation is no guarantee that consensus will
  be reached but an inclusive, effective process
  will help to smooth the path of offshore wind
  development and build peoples confidence and
  support of the technology