IPBES Nexus Assessment: Renewable Energy and Nature

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How does renewable energy affect nature?

The IPBES Nexus Assessment rated how 71 response options affect five elements: biodiversity, water, food, health and climate change. Offshore wind and solar power on land are rated positive for climate change and slightly negative for biodiversity. The sea off Karatsu City, Saga Prefecture, Japan, is a 'preparatory zone' for offshore wind in the national list as of 5 January 2026.

On this page, Karatsu Farm & Food, a nonprofit in Karatsu, extracts the renewable-energy options from Figure SPM.8 of the Nexus Assessment's Summary for Policymakers (SPM), and sets them alongside a research review of offshore wind, Japan's legal framework, the status of the sea off Karatsu, local ordinances on solar power and the national green infrastructure targets, using public and academic sources only. We add no evaluation of our own. Every source is listed in the source ledger below.

What is the IPBES Nexus Assessment?

Its full title is the Thematic Assessment Report on the Interlinkages among Biodiversity, Water, Food and Health. The Summary for Policymakers was approved at the 11th session of the IPBES Plenary in December 2024. It was prepared by 165 experts from 57 countries, drawing on more than 6,500 publications.

The final version of the SPM was published on Zenodo on 16 June 2025 (DOI 10.5281/zenodo.13850289). A Japanese translation was published by IGES in February 2026. The table and quotations on this page follow the English final version.

Response option	Biodiversity	Water	Food	Health	Climate change
C05 Offshore wind	Negative, small	Negative, small	Negative, small	Negative, small	Positive, small
C06 Solar power on land	Negative, small	Positive, medium	No effect	Positive, medium	Positive, large
W03 Dam operation	No effect	Positive, small	Negative, small	Negative, small	Negative, large
F09 Reducing plastic pollution	Inconclusive (IC)	Positive, small	Positive, small	Positive, small	Positive, small

Four response options in Figure SPM.8

Offshore wind (C05) is positive (small) for climate change and negative (small) for the other four elements. Solar power on land (C06) is positive (large) for climate change, positive (medium) for water and health, negative (small) for biodiversity, and has no effect on food. Dam operation (W03) is negative (large) for climate change. Reducing plastic pollution (F09) is positive (small) for water, food, health and climate change; for biodiversity it is inconclusive (IC).

The SPM text states that solar and wind help mitigate climate change, and that environmental impact assessment and appropriate policies are needed to avoid trade-offs with biodiversity and food systems (both 'well established'). It also notes that some options may have unintended negative effects on other elements if not implemented carefully, giving offshore wind and dam operation as examples.

Negative impacts72%

Positive impacts13%

Ecological impacts of offshore wind (research review)

A literature review published in 2022 (Galparsoro et al., 2022) extracted 867 findings from 158 publications on the ecological impacts of offshore wind farms; 72% were negative impacts and 13% positive. Most of the studies (64%) concerned the operational phase.

Negative impacts include bird collisions with turbines and changes in distribution as birds avoid wind farm areas. For marine mammals, pile driving changes distribution, with harbour porpoises temporarily leaving construction areas. On the other hand, the review notes that turbine foundations may act as artificial reefs or fish aggregation devices for small demersal fish, that safety bans on bottom trawling around turbines may reduce disturbance to fish and benthic life, and that spillover effects of up to 7% higher catches near turbines have been reported.

Preparatory zoneOff Karatsu (as of 5 Jan 2026)

Promising zoneStatutory council set up

Promotion zone

Japan's offshore wind framework

Offshore wind in general sea areas in Japan proceeds under the Act on Promoting the Utilization of Sea Areas for the Development of Marine Renewable Energy Power Generation Facilities (Act No. 89 of 2018; renamed from 1 April 2026, see below), which entered into force on 1 April 2019. In the national process, zones move from preparatory zone to promising zone to promotion zone, and a statutory council of local stakeholders is set up at the promising-zone stage.

An amending act (Act No. 59 of 2025) was promulgated on 11 June 2025 and entered into force on 1 April 2026. It renamed the law in Japanese as the Act on the Development of Marine Renewable Energy Power Generation Facilities (unofficial translation). It extends development to the exclusive economic zone (EEZ), with the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry designating 'invitation zones'. When promotion or invitation zones are designated, the Minister of the Environment surveys the marine environment, and the corresponding procedures under the Environmental Impact Assessment Act carried out by developers no longer apply. The government's target is to form projects of 10 GW by 2030 and 30 to 45 GW by 2040.

Date	Status of the sea off Karatsu	Published by
30 Sep 2022	Zone that has reached a certain preparatory stage	MLIT and METI
3 Oct 2023	Zone that has reached a certain preparatory stage	MLIT and METI
30 Jul 2025	Preparatory zone	METI
3 Oct 2025	Preparatory zone	METI
As of 5 Jan 2026	Preparatory zone	Agency for Natural Resources and Energy

The sea off Karatsu

The sea off Karatsu City was listed as a 'zone that has reached a certain preparatory stage' on 30 September 2022 and 3 October 2023, and as a 'preparatory zone' on 30 July 2025, 3 October 2025 and in the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy's list as of 5 January 2026. Statutory councils are set up for promising zones; preparatory zones are not subject to them.

This page records only what national publications state about the sea off Karatsu. We will update it when a new national status is published.

Solar power on land and local ordinances

According to the Research Institute for Local Government, 344 ordinances specifically regulating the installation of solar power facilities had been confirmed as promulgated as of 1 April 2026. The first was in Yufu City, Oita, in January 2014. Nine are prefectural ordinances (Hyogo, Wakayama, Okayama, Yamanashi, Yamagata, Miyagi, Nara, Nagano and Aomori).

The institute cites as background soil runoff and turbid water, impacts on landscapes, and degradation of habitats for plants and animals. This can be read alongside Figure SPM.8, where solar power on land is rated negative (small) for biodiversity.

Small hydropower under 1,000 kWRun-of-riveror waterway type in most cases

Small and medium hydropowerNo large damsdoes not require large structures such as dams

Dam operation and small hydropower

In Figure SPM.8, dam operation (W03) is rated negative (large) for climate change, negative (small) for food and health, positive (small) for water, and no effect on biodiversity.

According to the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy's guidebook, small and medium hydropower "does not require large structures such as dams". By use of water it is divided into run-of-river, pondage, reservoir and pumped storage types, and small hydropower under 1,000 kW is mostly run-of-river or waterway type. Some schemes use the head of existing erosion-control or forest-conservation dams. Figure SPM.8 assesses dam operation, and this page does not treat that rating as a rating of small hydropower.

Indicator	Baseline	Target
Members of the Green Infrastructure Public-Private Partnership Platform	2,150 (FY2025)	5,000 (FY2030)
Cumulative Green Infrastructure Awards	76 (FY2024)	150 (FY2030)
CO2 absorbed and stored by blue carbon ecosystems	340,000 t (FY2023)	1,000,000 t (FY2035)

National green infrastructure targets

On 23 January 2026, Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) published the Green Infrastructure Promotion Strategy 2030. Example indicators: platform members from 2,150 (FY2025) to 5,000 (FY2030); cumulative Green Infrastructure Awards from 76 (FY2024) to 150 (FY2030); CO2 absorbed and stored by blue carbon ecosystems from 340,000 t (FY2023) to 1,000,000 t (FY2035).

Our own green infrastructure work is described on our Green Infrastructure page.

FAQ

Q1. Is IPBES against offshore wind?

IPBES assessments highlight policy relevance without being policy-prescriptive (IPBES assessment guide). In Figure SPM.8, offshore wind is rated positive (small) for climate change and negative (small) for biodiversity, water, food and health. The SPM states that solar and wind help mitigate climate change, and that environmental impact assessment and appropriate policies are needed to avoid trade-offs with biodiversity and food systems.

Q2. Has offshore wind off Karatsu been decided?

In the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy's list of zones (as of 5 January 2026), the sea off Karatsu City, Saga Prefecture, is a 'preparatory zone'. It is not listed as a 'promising zone' or a 'promotion zone'.

Q3. Does the dam rating apply to small hydropower?

Figure SPM.8 assesses 'dam operation' (W03). According to the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy's guidebook, small hydropower under 1,000 kW is mostly run-of-river or waterway type and does not require large structures such as dams. This page does not treat the dam rating as a rating of small hydropower.

Q4. Is the Nexus Assessment available in Japanese?

A Japanese translation of the Summary for Policymakers was published by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) in February 2026. The English original takes precedence.

Source ledger

Sources used on this page. All were accessed on 11 October 2026.

What this page leaves out

Figures that could not be confirmed in primary sources are not included.

About this page

Compiled by Hiroaki Kojima, Vice Director, Karatsu Farm & Food. Contact: kojima@karatsu-f-f.com (contact page). Published October 12, 2026.

Related links

▶ Karatsu Data Bank
▶ Genkai Landings and Sea Temperature
▶ IPBES Nexus Assessment
▶ IPBESネクサス評価で見る 再生可能エネルギーと自然（日本語）