Marine

Chair: Kirsten Carter, RSPB, Vice-Chair: Bernadette Butterfield, RSPB

Link: Cassie Rist, Senior Policy Officer

Update from the Group

Our oceans play a key role in regulating our climate and are home to the majority of our renewable energy capacity. However, too often the importance of their protection and recovery is overlooked. 

The Wildlife and Countryside Link Marine Policy Group is working on the intersection between marine and energy policy, calling on the Government to view marine protection and restoration as a facilitator for economic growth, thriving coastal communities and healthy, productive seas. The Group is calling on the Government to: 

• Deliver effective marine spatial planning and optimised seascape management, through a connected network of nature recovery and protection. 
• Front load nature into the planning system to accelerate offshore renewable deployment, while harnessing the potential funding infrastructure projects bring for marine restoration.
• Develop a detailed and properly funded Just Transition Strategy for activities displaced by achieving Environment Act and Climate Change Act targets.

The Group have responded to several consultation since the start of the year, bringing the environmental sector together around shared ambitions on the Pressures and Drivers to Achieve Environmental Status, Stage 4 Fisheries Management Measures, and updated guidance on policies to inform MPA assessments. 

These positions have informed a sector leading paper on the planning reforms needed to embed nature within the renewable transition, which has become the backbone of our work within the infrastructure and planning sphere. 

Over the coming months, we will be focusing on: 

• Just Transition for Fisheries 
• Decommissioning Oil and Gas 
• Marine Net Gain

For further information, contact Cassie Rist, Link's Marine Lead: cassie@wcl.org.uk
Last updated: August 2024