BiodIvErSe

Sustainable spatial development can only be implemented in accordance with international & EU law if the interests of climate protection & biodiversity protection are considered. Effective legal instruments & methods must be further aligned to harmonise accelerated energy transition & biodiversity protection by provision of a sound legal basis for assessment-based decisions support to planning & approval authorities within the EU. To achieve 2050 EU climate neutrality &, according to the latest drafts of the national energy & climate plans of the participating regions, solar energy plays a decisive role in this transition. Increased PV implementation leads to increased land use, a challenge for nature & landscape protection & public acceptance. Therefore, the EU Strategy for Solar Energy focuses on innovative PV (I-PV) for multiple land use. This shall generate synergies by strengthening the climate resilience in agriculture, on moors & for water bodies, as well as to preserve nature conservation. To date, responsible authorities have gathered little or no experience planning, permitting & implementation procedures on the accelerated deployment of I-PV. Main challenges are methods to assess (negative, neutral, positive) environmental concerns. As some regions play a pioneering role in preparing their administrative framework ready for specific I-PV (e.g., Austria: floating PV; Germany: Agri-PV), other regions are facing the challenge on how to make legal secure assessment-based decisions. Within BiodIvErSe 9 partners (among them 1 advisory, 2 discovery) from Germany, Latvia, Poland, Greece, Ukraine, Austria, Bosnia Herzegovina plus 2 associated policy authorities from Germany & Austria work jointly to close knowledge gaps and to develop criteria for regional potential analysis & approval as well as strategic planning & implementation methods. As a result 6 regional policy instruments on regional strategic acceleration of Innovation PV will be developed exemplary.