Evidence-Based Strategies for a Biodiversity-positive Renewable Energy Transition
Acronym: BRET
BRET (2026–2029) addresses one of the most pressing sustainability challenges in Europe: how to accelerate the renewable energy transition while safeguarding biodiversity. As renewable energy deployment expands across landscapes and seascapes, conflicts with ecosystems, species, and local communities are becoming increasingly evident.
Context
The transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, hydropower, and bioenergy is essential for climate mitigation. However, large-scale infrastructure development often encroaches on natural ecosystems, causing habitat fragmentation, soil degradation, species displacement, and disruption of terrestrial and aquatic systems.
This creates a critical paradox: climate mitigation solutions may undermine biodiversity if ecological considerations are not fully integrated into planning and implementation. Although European policies endorse “do-no-harm” principles, current regulatory frameworks lack standardized and operational criteria to prevent biodiversity loss and assess cumulative impacts.
Strengthening biodiversity safeguards within decarbonization pathways is therefore both societally urgent and politically necessary to ensure sustainable development, ecosystem resilience, and long-term policy credibility.
Main Objectives
- Establish robust biodiversity baselines to inform site selection and spatial planning.
- Develop a dynamic ecological impact assessment framework integrating DPSIR analysis and stakeholder engagement.
- Operationalize biodiversity valuation by combining ecological, economic, and socio-cultural perspectives.
- Translate scientific evidence into actionable recommendations through integrated European case studies.
Main Activities
BRET combines Earth observation, field surveys, and microclimate modelling to assess impacts of renewable energy infrastructure on habitats, species, ecosystem functions, and ecosystem services.
The project develops a practical ecological impact assessment framework, structured around the DPSIR approach, and integrates biodiversity valuation methods that reflect how ecological impacts are perceived and contested in real planning contexts.
Strong emphasis is placed on knowledge transfer and stakeholder engagement. Policymakers, energy developers, environmental authorities, NGOs, and local communities are actively involved through interviews, deliberative workshops, and case studies across Europe.
Results will be disseminated through policy briefs, technical guidance, open-access data and tools, scientific publications, and targeted dialogue events aligned with European policy processes.