Community Benefits Agreement
As offshore wind energy (OWE) development continues, coastal communities are increasingly focused on understanding how wind farms could potentially affect them. Part of that process can also involve working with developers to identify options to counter or resolve possible impacts. A Community Benefit Agreement (CBA) is a negotiation tool that has enabled coastal places to achieve such ends. The benefits that can be derived from a CBA differ from the compensatory payments tied to legal action; a CBA reflects the shared willingness of the community and the developer to jointly arrive at solutions amenable to both.
Transcription: Community Benefits Agreements Infographic
Image Credit: Klain, S. C., Satterfield, T., MacDonald, S., Battista, N., & Chan, K. M. (2017). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2017.05.009
A CBA provides a formal avenue for a coastal community hosting OWE activity to collaborate with the developer and government on a multi-step process to arrive at implementable solutions for the possible impacts presented by a wind farm. This process may involve:
A comprehensive description of, and dialogue around, the proposed wind farm project and portions of the work, such as the building of a substation or the laying of underwater cables, that could potentially affect residents or environments.
Mediated or facilitated discussion of the project, the potential impacts, and possible solutions, such as the provision of a community park to offset the loss of substation land or the restoration of marine habitat to compensate for cable laying disruption.
Initiation of an advisory group, made up of community members and developer staff or board members, to convene regularly to ensure the goals of the CBA are met and that the dialogue continues.
Science-based public engagement, such as information exchanges, iterative community meetings, interactive web-based portals, and “kitchen table” meetings, meaning community members are given the opportunity to sit down with decision-makers and speak openly and honestly about their questions and concerns.
Interdisciplinary approaches that bring social science as well as “hard” science to bear on the issue of incorporating OWE into the fabric of coastal communities.
Integration of experiences from other communities either hosting or grappling with OWE issues.
CBA Basics
CBA Science: According to Rudolph et al., academic research has long pointed to a perceived disjuncture between the global benefits of renewable energy and the impacts that are experienced locally.
Webinar: Rhode Island Sea Grant and partners organized a webinar, “Negotiating Partnerships Between Communities and the Offshore Wind Industry.” The featured panelists share firsthand experiences and findings for implementing varied community benefit agreement strategies and tools.
Case Studies: An Island Institute report provides CBA examples from Block Island (RI), Monhegan Island (ME), and Martha’s Vineyard (MA). See the following table and read more here. Or visit the Monhegan Community Benefits Advisory Committee recommendations here.
