Financing the Sustainable Blue Economy

Blue ecosystems – coastal and marine ecosystems that are the habitat for many millions of species and provide services and benefits such as food security, livelihoods in the form of fishing or tourism, coastal protection and carbon sequestration – are vital for human prosperity.

They provide the foundation to feed over three billion people, provide direct and indirect employment for around 350 million people1 and add around $1.5 trillion annually to the global economy.2

Human activities, such as overfishing, pollution and unchecked coastal development, endanger the health of these ecosystems putting the vast value they provide at risk. With around half the world’s population living close to ocean and coastal ecosystems3, investment in the sustainable blue economy is needed now, but it must be done in a way that is compatible with a healthy ocean and stable climate.

“The blue finance space is gaining traction and vital to help protect our ocean from dangers such as overfishing. Science-backed approaches, such as credible and robust certification schemes, play a key role when designing products that can contribute positively to a sustainable blue economy.”

Ray Dhirani, Head of Capital Markets Outreach at the Marine Stewardship Council & Aquaculture Stewardship Council

At last year’s LMA Sustainable Finance Conference, we asked delegates to identify the most pressing issues in the sector, and blue finance was high on the agenda. To proactively address this, we convened experts to establish what the loan market could do to promote investment in blue projects. The answer centred on education. Blue investors (both actual and wannabe) can already access a wealth of information (see below) – our role at the LMA is to make it known to enable progress to be made on this critical agenda!!