Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps he is taking to ensure that the deployment of offshore renewables is not detrimental to blue carbon stores.

The Government is committed to delivering clean power by 2030, to accelerating to net zero and to restoring nature. The Government needs to ensure that the UK’s marine ecosystems are healthy and capturing and storing carbon too. This means that new energy infrastructure needs to be planned and developed in a way that protects the natural environment and supports nature recovery.

Assessment and mitigation of environmental impacts are a core part of the Government’s planning processes, and future spatial plans will support rebuilding the UK’s natural infrastructure at the same time as building the new energy infrastructure the UK needs for the twenty-first century.