Webinar: The North Sea in transition: new approaches in policy and law
Harm Dotinga, senior lawyer at Vogelbescherming Nederland (BirdLife in the Netherlands) gave a presentation on The North Sea in transition: new approaches in policy and law. He did so during a webinar for staff of the Utrecht 木瓜福利影视 School of Law and students from the master programme Public International Law.
Dotinga discussed the three major transitions are currently taking place in the North Sea: the nature transition, the food transition and the energy transition. The North Sea is one of the most heavily used seas in the world, and already the scene of considerable tension between nature conservation, energy production and food supply (in particular fisheries).
North Sea Agreement
In the Netherlands a new approach has been applied to tackle these problems through the adoption of a comprehensive national North Sea Agreement (). This agreement was concluded in June 2020 between the Dutch government and the most important stakeholders in the nature, energy and fisheries sectors. Harm Dotinga was closely involved in the negotiations of the agreement, as representative of BirdLife Netherlands. He discussed the background, negotiating process, content, legal significance and limitations of the agreement.