Huw Irranca-Davies MS, Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
For the first time Wales is to have a specific marine planning tool which will help to determine the future of our seas, as part of our strategic planning to enhance the marine environment while also generating clean green energy.
In 2019, we introduced Wales’s first marine plan, setting out our vision for the sustainable development of our seas and establishing a new planning system. Today, I would like to update the Senedd on a significant step forward in the implementation of the plan, the introduction of the first marine planning Strategic Resource Areas (SRAs).
SRAs are a new and innovative marine planning tool which will indicate which sectors may have priority over others in specific areas. We must plan carefully for the future of our seas, understanding the opportunities for generating sustainable and green energy while also protecting and enhancing our unique, irreplaceable marine environment. SRAs are an important part of doing this. They will help us understand where there are opportunities to take forward sustainable development and how these relate to the most environmentally sensitive areas which we must protect. They will also help ensure that the decisions we take today have the interests of the future at their heart.
Today, I am announcing the introduction of our first SRAs, for tidal stream energy. Tidal stream is an emerging and innovative sector, developing cutting-edge technology to generate predictable and sustainable energy from our seas. It has the potential to play a significant role in decarbonising our energy system and achieving net zero, while offering high quality employment and supply chain opportunities for our coastal communities. Tidal stream is a sector at the early stage of development and comes at a time when our seas are becoming ever more busy. It is therefore important that we provide certainty through marine planning on the long-term availability of key areas with potential to support future activity.
SRAs will provide this certainty and aim to give confidence to developers. They identify key areas with potential to support future tidal stream energy generation and formally safeguard the future availability of these areas for potential tidal stream energy proposals. This does not mean that proposals for development in these areas would be approved. All proposals, whether within or outside of an SRA, will have to apply for proper consents and must satisfy rigorous regulatory requirements on environmental protection and social impact. Development in the marine environment must be balanced with the need to restore and enhance the diversity and resilience of our marine ecosystems.
The development of SRAs has been a truly collaborative process. The expertise and advice of our partners has been crucial to developing the SRAs we have introduced today. I would like to thank everyone who gave their time and expertise freely to support this process. We will also be working with our partners and stakeholders over the coming months to support the implementation of SRAs.
In introducing SRAs for tidal stream energy, we are leading the way, but there is more to do. We are already working with our partners to develop proposals for SRAs for other important sectors, including floating offshore wind. Alongside this, we are developing guidance on how to enhance the marine ecosystem through the marine plan. The introduction of SRAs also marks the first step towards providing greater guidance through our marine planning system on where and how much future development might be possible, while protecting and enhancing our precious marine environment. Now is the time to act with ambition; and to understand how we can go further, my officials have commissioned a review of marine planning approaches.
Our seas are an incredible natural asset, which have the potential to be central to addressing both the climate and nature emergencies. I firmly believe that our marine planning system has a key role to play in realising this potential, guiding and supporting sustainable development to benefit our coastal communities and economy while also protecting and enhancing our marine environment.