Renewable energy company Ørsted is partnering with WWF to support a rapid transition to renewable energy while addressing the global biodiversity crisis starting with a project in the North Sea. The diversity of life on planet Earth is our natural life-support system. But it’s being lost at an alarming rate, the latest Living Planet Report by WWF showed that wildlife has decreased by 69% on average since 1970. Climate change is accelerating this trend – and one of the most effective things to address climate change is to speed up the global shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy. Ørsted's ambition is to create a net-positive biodiversity impact for all new renewable energy projects they commission from 2030, while WWF has issued a clear call to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by the same year. The two organisations want to show governments and industry what can be done, setting a new standard for biodiversity protection and restoration in offshore wind development and encouraging others to join them in making offshore wind something that has a net-positive impact on ocean biodiversity. Their partnership is starting with a joint project in Denmark in collaboration with DTU Aqua, to find methods for restoring flat oyster & horse mussel populations, two species that used to be abundant in the North Sea and are considered ‘ecosystem builders’. Today, both species’ populations are significantly diminished in this area, due to human activities. The project aims to establish methods and protocols for developing and producing the two species, and for establishing flat oyster and horse mussel reefs in the wild. Furthermore, the partners aim to establish one or more viable biogenic reefs in the Danish North Sea or Kattegat, bringing immediate local benefits. https://orsted.com/en/sustainability/our-priorities/nature/working-with-wwf-for-ocean-biodiversity https://youtu.be/2Ej_H_nmlaU