THE CROWN ESTATE has this week (Sept 11) published its Marine Delivery Routemap, outlining a comprehensive vision for the UK’s seabed, including key areas such as South Wales. The plan aims to support the growth of vital sectors like offshore wind while enhancing biodiversity and addressing the increasing demands placed on the seabed.

As the UK races towards a green energy future, this long-term strategy seeks to unlock the potential of marine resources to accelerate clean energy projects and drive economic growth in coastal regions. The focus is on balancing energy needs with environmental preservation, particularly in biodiversity restoration, a pressing issue as UK marine habitats face increasing strain.

Supporting growth in Wales

With a clear focus on supporting economic development, the Routemap aims to provide much-needed certainty to developers and investors, offering a stable framework for future seabed developments. South Wales is highlighted as a key region for offshore wind projects, especially within the Celtic Sea. The strategy seeks to foster partnerships between industries and local communities to ensure benefits flow onshore through job creation, infrastructure improvements, and investment in ports and supply chains.

In addition, The Crown Estate will work with various stakeholders, including local authorities and environmental agencies, to ensure the long-term sustainability of the marine environment. The Routemap aims to identify new areas for nature restoration and boost the region’s role in helping the UK meet its net zero goals.

A leading role in offshore wind

The UK is already a world leader in offshore wind, and The Crown Estate is building on this foundation. Its partnership with Great British Energy, announced recently, aims to bring 20-30 gigawatts (GW) of additional offshore wind power to market by 2030—enough to power almost 20 million homes. Much of this new capacity is expected to come from the Celtic Sea, benefiting South Wales and South West England.

With a mix of fixed and floating wind farm foundations under consideration, the new offshore wind projects promise to cement the region’s status as a renewable energy powerhouse, creating new skilled jobs and attracting significant investment. The report also proposes measures to de-risk these projects for developers, ensuring faster deployment of wind farms.

Balancing energy and environment

The demand for marine space is growing, particularly as the UK expands its offshore renewable energy capacity. However, this must be balanced with the protection of marine ecosystems. The Crown Estate’s Marine Delivery Routemap places a strong emphasis on biodiversity and nature recovery. This includes identifying new areas for conservation and developing strategies to restore marine habitats that have suffered due to human activity.

Ed Miliband, the UK’s Energy Secretary, praised the Routemap, saying: “The sustainability of our seabed is critical to securing the UK’s energy independence alongside protecting the environment. The ambitious plans set out by The Crown Estate will help deliver homegrown energy and create jobs while ensuring the protection of our marine environment.”

Next steps for the Marine Delivery Routemap

The Crown Estate will continue to work with partners and stakeholders to refine the Marine Delivery Routemap. A series of sector-specific updates, starting with offshore wind, are expected to follow. These will outline further developments in nature recovery, carbon capture, and other marine sectors.

South Wales and the UK’s broader marine sectors now look set to play a key role in not only delivering the energy transition but also restoring and protecting the marine environment for future generations

LAST week, climate campaigners from West Wales joined a peaceful and vibrant three-day protest in Windsor, calling for urgent climate action and democratic reform. The event, dubbed “Upgrade Democracy,” saw strong representation from West Wales activists as they engaged with the public, advocating for the establishment of Citizens’ Assemblies—a form of participatory democracy with origins dating back to Ancient Greece.

Local campaigners Jane Mansfield from Pentrecagal and Philip Hughes from Carmarthen delivered letters to the King, penned by residents of Cardigan, young and old, over the preceding weeks. The letters expressed heartfelt concerns about the escalating climate and nature crises, and the urgent need for effective action. Many of the writers called for the adoption of Citizens’ Assemblies, with some arguing that such measures could help restore faith in the political system.

“So many people have lost faith in our current system,” said Jane. “It’s clear that wealth and power are concentrated in the hands of a few, with powerful business interests corrupting our politics and media, causing delay and denial on the climate crisis while sidelining other important decisions. We urgently need a new approach that prioritises the well-being of young people and future generations. Citizens’ Assemblies could be a crucial step towards breaking the influence of vested interests in a way that is fair for everyone. They could work alongside our current system, providing advice. I encourage everyone to get informed and ask their elected representatives when we can expect to see them in action.”

Following the event, the organisers, Extinction Rebellion, thanked the people of Windsor for their positive engagement with the protest.

THIS weekend (Aug 31), climate campaigners will gather at the first Welsh Climate camp in 15 years. The camp will take place at Kilvey Hill, Swansea. Climate Camp is a movement that organises temporary camps for environmental protesters, in areas threatened by ecocidal developments that increase carbon emissions, but which are organised with the support of the local community.

Kilvey woods is the green lung of Swansea city. It is one of Swansea’s largest urban fringe woodlands and is a designated Site of Importance for Nature Conservation, designated quiet area and open space land. It has the most beautiful footpaths in Swansea city centre, and a walk through the woods will leave your ears ringing with birdsong (birds such as skylark, night jar, linnet, peregrine, redwing, song thrush, fieldfare, raven and whitethroat). The extra noise from proposed 450,000 visitors and light pollution is likely to cause a loss of recently established birdlife and further damage to an area of regenerating landscape. It’s a nature rich site – the rare small blue butterfly, for example, has been recorded here – and a young but established woodland with an existing management plan to slowly return it to native broadleaf trees as the old plantation pines die out. The woodland was planted by the local community, yet now this publicly owned land may be leased to a private company in the face of significant opposition from the local community.

The Welsh Government are spending £4 million to help fund this development despite the fact that it contravenes the National Assembly of Wales Environment Act 2016. This money is also being spent at a time when inflation is high, energy costs are high, and many people are going to food banks. Swansea Council are giving £8 million pounds to this development. They have said that this is a loan that will be repaid without giving any details. Councils elsewhere in the UK who give millions ‘on loan’ to dubious tourist developments often do not get their money back, despite giving guarantees to the public that they will. This is public money and there are better and more responsible things it can be spent on than schemes like this.

Swansea County Council declared a climate and nature emergency in June 2019 and again in November 2021 and have also placed around the city centre planters and information boards to encourage biodiversity and to celebrate and inform people of our natural heritage. Despite this, they are supporting a project that will destroy a woodland area the size of 11 football fields on Kilvey Hill and leave it permanently blighted. That brings Swansea council’s stated claims about climate change and biodiversity into disrepute and means it is questionable whether these aspirations are anything more than empty words.

Climate Camp Cymru will be a space of education with a great number of workshops & skillshare sessions. This includes opportunities to learn from other environmental struggles around the world such as Ende Gelände in Germany and get experience with practical campaigning skills.

A local spokesperson for the Save Kilvey Hill campaign said “Kilvey has magnificent views over Swansea bay and in every other direction you look. It is a quiet and peaceful place where Swansea residents can get away from it all, reconnect with nature, enjoy the views in peace, and de-stress. This will all be destroyed by the buildings, cable cars, steel pylons, concrete ‘Go Kart’ style tracks, restaurants, and so on that are being planned by Skyline and Swansea Council.”

The proposed development will privatise around a third of the publicly accessible land on Kilvey Hill in a central position. It will destroy existing unrecorded paths used on foot and horse for generations. It would be so vast that all areas of the hill around it would be affected by noise pollution, traffic, and air pollution, and be overlooked by 22 cable cars and a 50 metre skyswing. The community roundhouse in a peaceful glade will be directly overlooked by the cable cars. Many community groups use the hill precisely because it is a quiet, natural landscape unspoiled by commercial development.

An individual hosting a workshop at the climate camp added “Wales has had a key role in the emergence of the fossil fuel industry that has become such a massive threat to the very future of civilisation. As books like The Origins of Capitalism by Ellen Meiksins Wood describe, capitalism emerged in the late 1700s in the south of England, and spread from there around the world, pushed in no small part by the British empire. And the rich veins of coal that Wales has were a key source of fuel for this brutal colonial expansion.

With this history in mind, we think that it’s absolutely key that we in Wales also take a leading role in bringing this ecocidal system to an end, and building something more sustainable, more equal in its place”

The camp community and Save Kilvey Hill campaign will join the peaceful demonstration for Palestinian solidarity at the council green on Sunday afternoon, calling on the local council to honour their responsibilities to protect the local environment and the wellbeing of their community, and to draw the links of solidarity with Palestinian communities currently undergoing the devastation of their environment and wellbeing in Gaza and the West Bank.