Sustainable blue economy important topic in eMSP NBSR
eMSP NBSR is a European project aimed at better maritime spatial planning. Together with Community of Practice North Sea from the Netherlands, Blue Cluster is in charge of the topic “sustainable blue economy” within this project.
During the opening event, Blue Cluster coordinated the popular discussion group on this topic. The main conclusions of this discussion group were the following:
- sustainable blue economy means that existing activities are made sustainable and that new, innovative activities may only be developed if they are sustainable;
- on the basis of concrete examples from the industry, recommendations should be formulated on how marine spatial planning could boost the sustainable blue economy.
In addition, this project is aimed at coming up with an answer to the following questions:
- How can as much space as possible be provided for sustainable economic activities while maximising the positive effects on the ecosystem?
- How can the sustainable blue economy make a significant contribution to addressing the challenges entailed by climate change?
Thresholds
During a lively discussion, several thresholds in the development of a sustainable blue economy were identified. The principal ones were:
- the quantification of positive and negative effects on the marine environment;
- the complexity of the regulations and authorisation procedures.
In addition, there is considerable tension between the so-called major goals (environmental goals, economic goals and climate goals). If you achieve a particular goal, there is a risk that you can no longer achieve another goal. This is an important potential topic for discussion.
Community of Practice
The aim is to build a Community of Practice centred around the topic 'sustainable blue economy' with a focus on renewable energy, sustainable food production, nature and multi-use. The geographical delimitation is the North Sea and the Baltic Sea.
This involves an intensive idea exchange process. Four major physical meetings were planned. The first one, concerning sustainable food production, took place in Brussels on 22 March. It was a closed meeting, but interested third parties could register through Blue Cluster.
