The Synthesis report provides a high-level overview of the main themes addressed in the Guidelines on mitigating biodiversity impacts associated with solar and wind energy development, published in 2021. The Guidelines aim to provide practical support for solar and wind energy devel-opments to effectively manage risks and improve biodiversity and ecosystem service outcomes.
Achieving a climate-resilient future requires rapid, sustained and far-reaching transformations in energy, land-use, infrastructure and industrial systems. Large-scale expansion of renewable energy can play a critical role in meeting the world’s growing energy demands and in the fight against climate change. However, even ‘clean’ energy sources can have significant unintended impacts on the environment.
The goal of biodiversity offsets -- measurable conservation outcomes resulting from actions designed to compensate for significant residual adverse biodiversity impacts arising from project development after other appropriate prevention and mitigation measures have been taken -- is to achieve no net loss (or net gain) in biodiversity. This report assesses the conditions under which biodiversity offsets may provide the best outcomes for biodiversity and achieve no net loss.
