Legal Appraisal of Marine Scotland and the Offshore Wind Industry Group as Legal Responses for Combating the Environmental Impact of Offshore Wind Development in Scotland’s Territorial Waters

Abstract

Combating the challenges occasioned by the environmental impact of offshore wind development in Scottish territorial waters has been a lingering problem for the Scottish government in its lofty bid to addressing the generation of power from offshore wind as a supposed climate-friendly power generation initiative. Marine Scotland and the Offshore Wind Industry Group are two major organisations in Scotland designed to achieve this laudable mission geared towards minimising the deleterious environmental impact of the alternative power-generation drive. This paper examines, identifies, appraises and analyses the imminent and immediate challenges such legal moves is billed to encounter within the ambits of the extant laws and policy and endeavours a holistic assessment of the groups’ policy statements and recommendations as appropriate legal responses for achieving the environmental restoration and preservation of the Scottish offshore territory whilst making a set of recommendations to achieve the proper policy implementation and the environmental restoration objectives.

Keywords: Marine Scotland, Offshore, Wind, Scotland, Challenges, Environment.