Audible response

Danish Ports' consultation response regarding the establishment of the Port Nature Fund and the Maritime Spatial Planning Act.

Danish Ports acknowledges the opportunity to submit comments on the bill to amend the Act on the Protection of the Marine Environment Act (establishment of the Harbour Nature Fund) and the Act on Maritime Spatial Planning.

Danish Ports welcomes the new Harbor Nature Fund and the ambitions for a cost-effective restoration of marine nature and the desire to build knowledge about better coexistence between renewable energy development and nature and environmental considerations at sea.

General comments:
Remember commercial ports as the foundation for offshore wind development

  • Ports are an important part of the value chain that develops renewable energy at sea. Port infrastructure must be sufficiently upgraded and in good condition to do the job quickly and efficiently. In particular, sufficiently deep and "straight" shipping channels are crucial for the offshore wind industry when transporting large wind turbine elements from production on land to installation at sea.
  • The carrying capacity of quay areas and sufficiently deep harbor basins are also crucial port infrastructures for the wind turbine industry. This is described in the recommendations of the Government's Port Partnership published on September 30, 2024. A sub-report from Danish Ports, prepared by Implement, also elaborates on the future requirements for port infrastructure.
  • For Danish Ports, it is important that the best possible conditions are created to ensure coexistence between RE development at sea and environmental and nature considerations. Similarly good conditions for coexistence should be ensured between environmental and nature considerations and active operation and modernization of commercial ports. Ports must be able to keep up with both current and future needs.
  • More than half of Denmark's commercial ports are directly involved in offshore wind development today, and there may be even more ports in the future that contribute in various ways to development, operation and maintenance.

Dredged marine sediment as part of nature restoration

  • It must be possible to use the dredged sediment from maintenance of shipping channels, wind farm development, etc. as environmentally friendly as possible, also for the restoration of marine nature, as it is usually ordinary seabed that is dredged. The Harbor Nature Fund could support natural uses of the material at sea. This could be in old sand extraction holes that are currently lying dead, or as seabed improvement in soft areas where eelgrass beds etc. are desired. There is a need for increased innovation and development in this area, and not least a number of pilot projects adapted to Danish waters. The Marine Environment Fund can play a valuable role here, so that in the future the focus is not only on bird islands, which are still good initiatives for material recycling on water.
  • The realization of the individual projects under the Fund must be designed so that they do not give rise to negative financial or administrative consequences for the commercial ports.
  • Proposals for projects supported/financed by the Fund should be submitted for consultation with relevant commercial ports before the projects can be approved. This will help ensure that they can be realized in the best possible way.

The foundation's work going forward.

  • It should be possible for organizations to submit proposals for the foundation's future prioritization of initiatives on an ongoing or regular basis. This will provide the best overall starting point for the foundation's proposals for prioritization and the necessary openness to new opportunities and ideas.
  • Danish Ports agree that it is a good idea to have environmental databases that make it possible to store and display large amounts of marine environmental data that is currently lost. So that data can be reused to a greater extent, e.g. for faster and more efficient case processing, e.g. for dredging permits. It should be investigated how
    other EU projects and projects supported by Danish public funds are also required to contribute relevant data to the databases.
  • It would be beneficial to clarify in the bill that it is possible to politically prioritize adding additional resources to the fund at a later date if the initiative and the results prove to be a fast and effective way to rapid marine nature restoration.