‘Promotion of Offshore Wind Power Generation Requires New Measures to Secure Community Acceptance’
There is growing interest in the claim that new measures to secure local community acceptance are necessary to smoothly advance offshore wind power projects, which are being discussed as one of the key strategies for carbon neutrality.
National Pukyong National University (President Jang Young-su) announced that Choi Min-gyu, a master's student in the Department of Law, was recently selected as the grand prize winner (Korea Environment Corporation Chairman's Award) at the 14th Graduate Student Environmental Law Excellent Paper Competition hosted by the Korean Environmental Law Association (President So Byung-cheon) held at Seoul National University.
Choi Min-gyu received the honor for his thesis titled “A Study on the Role of Offshore Wind Power and Legal System Improvement Measures for Achieving Carbon Neutrality” (supervised by Professor Park Jong-won). The prize money was 1 million KRW.
In his thesis, despite existing legal measures to secure local acceptance, he proposed legal interpretative and legislative approaches categorized by site selection, compensation for losses, support for surrounding areas, and benefit-sharing with local residents as solutions to ongoing conflicts, earning high praise.
He pointed out, “Although offshore wind power is necessary for the public interest, problems arise such as the project being centered on the business operator, inadequate prior review of site selection, discrepancies between compensation amounts and fishermen’s actual income, and economic inequality potentially caused by benefit-sharing methods limited to investment participation.”
As solutions to these issues, he suggested ▲ shifting to a public method for site selection ▲ discovering sites that minimize damage and providing objective compensation for fishing losses ▲ establishing a benefit-sharing fund through fees for the use and occupation of public waters, and environmental conservation agreements for the preservation of fishery resources.
Choi Min-gyu stated, “The project entity should be shifted to local governments and the central government, who are well acquainted with the field, and prior public consultation should be conducted through power environmental impact assessments when designating offshore wind power zones. Not only should site selection minimize damage, but compensation should be calculated based on objective data to reflect actual income. Furthermore, local acceptance must be secured through various benefit-sharing methods, including a benefit-sharing fund created from fees for the use and occupation of public waters and environmental conservation agreements for fishery resource preservation.”
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