Abstract
The ocean, which regulates climate and supports vital ecosystem services, is crucial to our Earth system and livelihoods. Yet, it is threatened by anthropogenic pressures and climate change. A healthy ocean that supports a sustainable ocean economy requires adequate financing vehicles that generate, invest, align, and account for financial capital to achieve sustained ocean health and governance. However, the current finance gap is large; we identify key barriers to financing a sustainable ocean economy and suggest how to mitigate them, to incentivize the kind of public and private investments needed for topnotch science and management in support of a sustainable ocean economy.
Highlights
The ocean, which regulates climate and supports vital ecosystem services, is crucial to our Earth system and livelihoods
Though the proportion of this amount that is relevant to the ocean has not been identified, the ocean financing gap is likely very high; it is estimated that to meet the global need for conservation funding in general, investable cash flows from conservation projects need to be at least 20–30 times greater than they are today[27]
A healthy ocean that supports a Sustainable Ocean Economy (SOE) requires a range of interventions to improve governance, science, and management; finance is an important enabler of a SOE, and underlies all ocean initiatives
Summary
Financial instruments used to either finance a SOE, or as a basis for generating new financial capital for promoting sustainable ocean resource use include traditional loans and grants, carbon markets, and insurance instruments (Fig. 1). The deployment of these different capital types depends on the expected returns from the investment, which in turn depends on the risk-return equations faced by investors (Fig. 1). Unsustainable use of oceans and their resources has led to the depletion of fish stocks and biodiversity, and increased pollution and habitat damage, among other negative impacts; cumulatively, Fig. 1 Characterization of major ocean finance capital types. This runs counter to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and all seventeen SDGs, in particular, SDG 14 and those focusing on hunger (SDG 2), poverty (SDG 1),
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