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Marine and Coastal Access Bill [HL]

Perhaps I may lay a gentle challenge to the noble Lord, Lord Greenway, on his point about vital infrastructure for energy generation and his asking what would happen if there was a tie-breaker proposition for the MMO that stated that, if all things were apparently equal, nature conservation, conservation of natural resources or indeed conservation of the ecosystem would take priority. When the first major round of wind-generation propositions came forward, it was interesting that, out of more than 30—perhaps even 40—of them, only two were objected to on the grounds of nature conservation. In both those cases, the development eventually went ahead in a slightly different location by a process of negotiation. Unless we give a pretty strong steer about the importance of ecosystems, less vigour will be put into the process of negotiating the best outcome for the environment, for social needs and for the economy.