Marine Renewables Canada provides recommendations to the Blue Economy Regulatory Review

In December 2022, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) in collaboration with the Treasury Board of Canada, launched the Blue Economy Regulatory Review (BERR). BERR focuses on three areas (1) the role of regulation as a driver of ocean innovation, (2) the regulatory and administrative barriers to environmentally sustainable growth, and (3) the development of agile regulations.

Marine Renewables Canada believes that addressing these questions is critical for the health of the marine renewables industry, and consequently, Canada’s ability to reduce its emissions and fend off the effects of climate change already being felt worldwide. For oceans, climate change means acidification, warming, and the destruction of fish and marine habitats. Canada’s oceans will not be spared this reality if climate change progresses and action is not taken to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels. Marine renewable energy sources, if supported and enabled by government, can help Canada reduce its emissions and, in the long term, mitigate the effects of climate change.

With the pressures of climate change, challenges created by a lack of regulatory certainty for the tidal industry, and Canada’s first offshore wind lease slated for 2025 in Nova Scotia, the time to build a transparent and predictable regulatory regime for the blue economy is now. In light of this, Marine Renewables Canada provided a submission to BERR last week with key recommendations for how regulatory challenges should be addressed if the marine renewable energy sector in Canada is going to contribute towards fighting climate change and building a blue economy.

Read our submission here.