Launch of Report: Shared Seas, Shared Decisions

Meaningful stakeholder engagement is a core condition for planning and delivering offshore wind and grid infrastructure that works for people, nature, and the energy transition. As European seas become increasingly busy spaces and offshore wind and grid infrastructure expands, early stakeholder engagement during Maritime Spatial Planning and project permitting is essential to identify concerns, potential conflicts, knowledge gaps, and opportunities for coexistence.

In order to support the deployment of offshore wind and grid alongside communities and marine ecosystem protection, OCEaN – North & Baltic Seas have published a new report on stakeholder engagement approaches undertaken at both the MSP and project level. Shared Seas, Shared Decisions includes an overview on the state of stakeholder engagement in Europe’s Northern seas; a collection of 15 inspiring practices; and 10 principles to guide governments and industry to create meaningful, impactful engagement going forward.

These principles underline the importance of going beyond minimum legal requirements, ensuring sufficient time and resources, aligning processes, reducing complexity, communicating clearly, involving stakeholders in community benefit design and local value creation, and maintaining flexibility. Applied together, these principles can help make engagement more timely, inclusive, transparent and connected across planning levels.

It is our hope that this report will provide new ideas and guidance towards achieving a people and nature-friendly energy transition at sea.

We invite you to explore this new publication alongside OCEaN’s principles and inspiring practices from our Members. Interested in further insights into the report’s creation and implications? Join our dedicated webinar on the report on 29 September by registering here.