Small scale or large scale - what governance implications from Offshore Wind Energy development in the North Sea?

The Ostende-Declaration in April 2024 announced the North Sea to become Europe’s Green Powerplant and heads of governments of 9 countries put forward an overall capacity of more than 300 GW to be installed by 2050 in the wider North Sea area. This includes Norway and the UK, but also the European Union acts as a major driver for this development, pushing the development of offshore wind (and other marine energies) not only with its Offshore Renewable Energy Strategy, but also legally by the EU Renewable Energy Directive. On the other hand, recent research shows that such a massive development within the North Sea Basin may also have impacts that extend the scale of a single windfarm and national boundaries, thereby potentially affecting objectives of other European policies such as the Marine Strategy Framework Directive, the Birds and Habitat Directives. How can governance (and related scientific advice) for these challenges be organized in an efficient and effective manner?

The workshop will introduce these issues in 3 presentations and then move into a discussion in smaller groups among workshop participants. Feedback from each of these groups will be briefly presented and discussed in plenary. Using offshore wind energy development as a case, the workshop aims to stimulate a discussion about which scales are appropriate to address large-scale governance issues, which institutional settings may be required and how science and research can contribute to this.