Estonia needs a clear renewable energy development plan
Summary of the roundtable ‘How to build wind farms quickly and without harming biodiversity at the same time?’
On 10 November Estonian Green Movement and Estonian Fund for Nature organised a roundtable on renewable energy and biodiversity for representatives of municipalities, ministries and the European Commission. In total 16 participants joined the event.
The roundtable discussion identified the main problems that prevent the accelerated development of renewable energy and put biodiversity at risk. However, the main focus of the roundtable was finding solutions so that Estonia could reach the goal set by 2030 of producing renewable energy in the amount of national consumption, without having a significant impact on biodiversity.
The opening remarks of the roundtable were made by the representative of the European Commission in Estonia according to whom REPowerEU has brought different aspects of wind energy development into public discussion. The European Commission representative admitted that building wind farms quickly without harming biodiversity is a difficult challenge to overcome. Therefore, the European Commission would have wanted to see in Estonia’s recovery plan at least some biodiversity investments, which, unfortunately, Estonia did not include in its recovery plan. The representative of the European Commission in Estonia hopes that Estonia will direct more money from the Cohesion Fund of the new period to the protection and restoration of biodiversity, and during the roundtable discussion, the participants will find solutions how could renewables and biodiversity coexist.
In the first half of the roundtable, representatives of different viewpoints (state, municipality and biodiversity) presented their problems in relation to roundtable topic:
- On accelerating renewable energy – Ministry of the Climate
- Wind farms of the municipality – architect of the municipality of Põhja-Pärnumaa
- Renewable energy threats to birds – Estonian Ornithology Society
In the second part of the roundtable, discussions took place between the participants, where they defined the main challenges and possible solutions.
In summary, the country’s specific plan for the development of renewable energy and regular meaningful communication between the parties, including roundtables, are key to maintaining biodiversity when building wind farms.
The roundtable was moderated by the discussion leader from SpeakSmart.
The summary was prepared by Sigrid Solnik and Carmen Kilvits.
