Dr. Donal Griffin:

It is a good head, and it is needed - "urgent area proposals to facilitate climate adaptation" - as long as the focus is on identifying areas that are not suitable for offshore renewable energy and not identifying areas for marine protected area designation. That is key. They should not be conflated. In previous session, we have discussed the importance of public participation and engagement as being critical to the success of MPAs. Although there are urgent powers in the head for other reasons, public engagement should not be short-circuited, even for climate reasons, in terms of fast-forwarding offshore renewable energy, ORE, or even necessarily for the nature aspect of climate adaptation. It is just about ensuring that within this head public participation is still involved in the MPA designation process.

I wish to make a wider point to pick up on what Ms Loughran says. I mentioned earlier to Deputy O'Callaghan about the importance of including carbon sequestration and storage in the provisions for the criteria for which MPAs would be designated features, but also to think more widely about the benefits, and the mitigation and adaptation that healthy seas deliver by being able to provide protection from coastal erosion and storm surges. We need to take a wider lens. It is not just about carbon, although that is a large part of it, but we must use a wider lens to address the already built-in impacts we will see down the line in terms of sea level rises and all that that brings as well.