Transitioning away from fossil fuels to renewable energy is fundamental to solving the biodiversity crisis, as climate change is a main driver of biodiversity loss. The space required for the renewable energy transition is significant, and, with a nature in crisis, it is vital that we make sure our energy projects benefit nature. In 2024, we continued taking action to deliver on our ambition to achieve a net-positive biodiversity impact from all new renewable energy projects from 2030.

Transitioning away from fossil fuels to renewable energy is fundamental to solving the biodiversity crisis, as climate change is a main driver of biodiversity loss. The space required for the renewable energy transition is significant, and, with a nature in crisis, it is vital that we make sure our energy projects benefit nature. In 2024, we continued taking action to deliver on our ambition to achieve a net-positive biodiversity impact from all new renewable energy projects from 2030.

Material IRO description:

1. Natural resources exploitation and land-use and freshwater-use change from mining. Negative impact (upstream value chain).
2. Ecotoxicity from mining. Negative impact (upstream value chain).
3. Land-use and sea-use change from coal and gas extraction. Negative impact (upstream value chain).

How do we manage the IRO?

1. We have completed a mapping to help us understand potential negative impacts on biodiversity that we may have in our value chain. We continue to explore ways to identify and mitigate impacts across our value chain, including our first attempt at mapping impacts from high impact commodities (HICs) in our upstream value chain.
2. We have completed a mapping to help us understand potential negative impacts on biodiversity that we may have in our value chain. We continue to explore ways to identify and mitigate impacts across our value chain, including our first attempt at mapping impacts from high impact commodities (HICs) in our upstream value chain.
3. We are working towards managing our biodiversity-related negative impacts in our value chain. In 2024, we closed our last coal-fired CHP plant, eliminating the impact from coal from 2025.

Transitioning away from fossil fuels to renewable energy is fundamental to solving the biodiversity crisis, as climate change is a main driver of biodiversity loss. The space required for the renewable energy transition is significant, and, with a nature in crisis, it is vital that we make sure our energy projects benefit nature. In 2024, we continued taking action to deliver on our ambition to achieve a net-positive biodiversity impact from all new renewable energy projects from 2030.

Our business model is to develop, construct, operate, and own renewable assets, and we are committed to doing this in an environmentally and socially sustainable way. However, we recognise that expanding our operations also implies a greater pressure on natural ecosystems. Therefore, protecting and restoring these ecosystems must be part of the solution, and we remain fully committed to effectively manage our impacts on biodiversity and ecosystems. Biodiversity management is an integral part of our business model and decision-making processes throughout the full life cycle of our projects. This ranges from early-stage site selection and planning, over project design, construction, operations, and eventually to decommissioning.

Biodiversity management is an integral part of our business model and decision-making processes throughout the full life cycle of our projects. This ranges from early-stage site selection and planning, over project design, construction, operations, and eventually to decommissioning.

Transitioning away from fossil fuels to renewable energy is fundamental to solving the biodiversity crisis, as climate change is a main driver of biodiversity loss. The space required for the renewable energy transition is significant, and, with a nature in crisis, it is vital that we make sure our energy projects benefit nature. In 2024, we continued taking action to deliver on our ambition to achieve a net-positive biodiversity impact from all new renewable energy projects from 2030.

We have not identified any material dependencies on biodiversity and ecosystems, although soil stability at our sites constitutes the most significant dependency. Regarding our transitional and physical risks, we have mapped out our exposure and have not found significant risks from biodiversity and ecosystems that are not already covered in our mitigation processes and biodiversity action plans. Additionally, we have not identified any systemic risks to our business model that are not addressed through our established practices or the implementation of measures to reach our biodiversity ambition.

In 2024, we updated our 'Biodiversity policy', which applies to all sites owned and operated by Ørsted, including sites in or near biodiversity-sensitive areas. The policy addresses the direct impacts from our operations on biodiversity, ecosystem protection, and sustainable ocean practices. The scope of the policy covers all of Ørsted’s renewable energy assets, both offshore and onshore, and includes our initial steps towards addressing biodiversity in our value chain and the associated dependencies. More specifically, we engage with some of our tier 1 suppliers on their progress on working with biodiversity, similar to our approach with decarbonisation. Our biodiversity policy does not currently cover the impacts on biodiversity and ecosystems from e.g. raw material extraction in our upstream value chain. However, we are committed to working with our suppliers through our 'Supply chain sustainability programme' on mitigating their impacts on biodiversity, where we are currently engaging with our tier 1 suppliers.

We have identified material negative impacts in our upstream value chain. These impacts are primarily direct impact drivers of biodiversity loss due to extraction of natural resources and mining activities. Furthermore, mining also has negative impacts on the extent and condition of ecosystems and thus impacts species diversity. As mentioned previously, we used the Global Biodiversity Score tool to obtain an overview of biodiversity- and ecosystems-related impacts in our upstream value chain, using global average data for our industry. We are dependent on mining of metals and minerals to expand the capacity of renewable energy assets, just as our peers in the industry. However, we acknowledge the trade-offs of mining in the value chain, which we actively work towards managing. As mentioned before, we are actively engaging with our tier 1 suppliers on their impacts on biodiversity, and we also continuously work towards gathering location-specific data on our upstream value chain.