Investing in Our Ocean’s Futures: A Sea of Possibilities For Finance
We live on an ocean planet. The ocean covers 71% of the Earth’s surface. It feeds us, regulates our climate and generates most of the oxygen we breathe.
It is the basis for key sectors of the economy, including transport (shipping, ferries, ports), energy (fossil fuels, offshore renewables), food (fisheries, aquaculture), telecommunications (submarine cables) and tourism (cruise tourism, coastal resorts). At the same time the ocean is home for most of the world’s biodiversity, from whales to plankton, and an incredible range of habitats, from tropical reefs to ice-covered polar seas. Overall, the ocean provides us with tangible and intangible, industrial and ecosystem products and services. The value of our ocean wealth was estimated at $24 trillion, and “declining fast,” by the World Wildlife Federation in 2015. That’s about the size of the U.S. and Japanese economies combined.
Despite their importance, oceans and coasts face unprecedented threats. Millions of tons of plastic waste enter the ocean. Overfishing is threatening the stability and sustainability of fish stocks. Nutrient pollution from wastewater and agricultural runoff is creating dead zones in nearshore waters. Coastal construction is destroying critical habitats and degrading natural coastal protection. Most pervasively, climate change is causing the ocean to warm, lose oxygen and become acidic. At the same time sea levels are rising and hurricanes and coastal flooding are growing in strength and frequency .
Fortunately, the ocean is resilient. We have the knowledge to create an ocean renaissance and with it bolster the services that the world relies on, from food to coastal protection to climate stability.
Restoring the ocean means reducing pressures and impacts so that the marine environment and resources can recover. Pollutants must be treated before they reach the ocean, and solid waste like plastics kept out completely. Regeneration also means understanding how to make both ecosystems and communities more resilient in the face of global change. Growing coastal cities should protect and restore, not remove and replace, coastal ecosystems. Key habitats such as coral reefs, mangroves and seagrasses can be restored and managed so that the ocean continues to support hundreds of millions of livelihoods globally as well as the earth’s largest reservoir of biodiversity.
Investing in ocean sustainability has great potential. Sustainable ocean-based investments could yield benefits at least five times greater than the costs, according to recent studies. Over the next 30 years, investing $2 trillion to $3.7 trillion globally across several sustainable ocean-based policy interventions could generate a net benefit of $8.2 trillion to $22.8 trillion.
Emerging areas that investments should focus on include reestablishing sustainable protein production from the ocean, restoring and maintaining mangrove habitats and harnessing the role of ocean and coastal ecosystems in CO2 removal.
Global seafood consumption is expected to rise by 15% during the decade through 2030, to about 200 million tons, according to last year’s agriculture outlook from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations. To meet this demand, aquaculture is expanding and by 2030 will account for 52% of global fish production, up from 47% in 2020, the OECD-FAO report said. Sustainable wild fisheries and fish and seaweed farming can support healthy diets while replacing carbon emission-intensive land-based meat production. Investing in ocean-based food production by improving fisheries and advancing ocean aquaculture is clearly a good bet, as every $1 invested in increasing production of sustainably sourced ocean-based protein is estimated to generate $10 in benefits, according to World Resources Institute.
Another opportunity for investing in ocean futures is the restoration and conservation of mangroves. These intertidal forests support biodiversity, fisheries and protect coastal areas from storms and flooding.
Studies have shown every $1 invested in mangrove conservation and rehabilitation is estimated to yield a benefit of $3, according to High Level Panel for Ocean Sustainability.
Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) and sequestration presents one of the most important and exciting opportunities for ocean investment. In nearshore areas, seagrass beds and mangroves capture and store “Blue Carbon”. The world’s mangrove forests hold around 4.2 billion tons of carbon. Destroying them releases more CO2 per hectare than any other type of deforestation. Every year, mangroves sequester 32 million tons of carbon. Worldwide, restoring deforested mangroves could store an extra 380 million tons of carbon over 20 years.
Overall, the open ocean is one of Earth’s biggest carbon sinks, but natural processes of the carbon cycle are too slow to lessen, let alone reverse, our climate change trajectory. Accelerating the rate by which the ocean can safely take up and store CO2 will help achieve climate goals. The ocean has a virtually unlimited potential for CO2 storage. Ocean CDR does not compete for space with other land uses, while accelerating natural sequestration processes. Responsible technologies and approaches for ocean CDR are under development and some are beginning to be deployed. These deserve the attention of the investment community.
It’s time to stop thinking about the ocean as a victim of human impacts and climate change, and that its survival depends only on government and NGO efforts fueled by public and philanthropic funds. Investing in the future of our oceans is critical to a healthy and productive planet—while presenting important opportunities for private sector finance.
