What is blue finance?

The ocean provides humanity with food, energy and trade opportunities, and plays a significant role in ensuring stability of the Earth system. For a healthy ocean, it is vital that flows of finance are channelled towards activities that focus on long-term sustainability, through promoting environmental conservation and practices that ensure the wellbeing of communities that depend on the ocean. Such financial flows are referred to as ‘blue finance’.

Currently, the main focus of blue finance is on reducing the carbon emissions of existing ocean-economy activities. However, blue finance is evolving rapidly within the landscape of sustainable finance to generate beneficial outcomes for the marine environment more widely. This is garnering interest from stakeholders including investors, financial institutions and other finance issuers around the world. Facilitating and labelling investments as ‘blue finance’ plays an important role in ensuring the regeneration, protection and sustainable use of the ocean and its resources by highlighting such projects to financial markets, which can attract a broader investor base and secure more favourable financing terms.

However, current levels of investment are below what is required to sustain a healthy ocean. The World Economic Forum estimates that US$175 billion of blue finance will be needed to achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14, ‘Life Below Water’, which is about conserving and sustainably using the ocean, seas and marine resources for sustainable development, by 2030. Of the 17 Goals, Life Below Water has seen the least investment to date. And only 9% of total investments in nature-based solutions to mitigate and adapt to climate change are directed to the marine environment, despite its significant potential to sequester carbon and guard against the impacts of climate change. 

How can blue finance be raised?

Blue finance is often thought of in the context of large, capital-intensive sectors or government financing, where financial instruments like blue bonds provide funding for projects and programmes that have positive impacts for the ocean, such as reducing pollution or establishing marine protected areas. Public and policy interest in ocean conservation through blue bonds has grown since the first sovereign blue bond was issued in 2018. To reduce the overall debt burden of countries, blue bond issuance can be linked with debt-for-nature swaps, an innovative financial approach that involves restructuring a country’s debt in exchange for commitments to environmental conservation, in this case in marine environments.

Many other types of financial instruments and mechanisms can be designed to target benefits for the marine environment and are suitable for various entities. For example, loans with ‘blue’ components are particularly relevant to smaller companies as they are generally simpler to access than bonds; loans of this kind can feature performance-linked terms to incentivise environmental improvements – such as a key performance indicator tied to the reduction of plastic waste at a tourist hotel. Other instruments include blue carbon credits, which are ‘offsets’ generated from the sequestration of carbon in marine ecosystems such as mangroves and seagrass beds and are often used to fund conservation efforts; equity investments in marine-focused businesses or initiatives that support sustainable development and ocean health; and insurance that provides financial protection against threats including natural disasters and habitat degradation, such as underwriting for coastal protection that utilises mangroves, or encourages the adoption of practices that do not harm the environment.

Banks, insurers, investors and official government agencies all have a part to play in providing finance for a sustainable ocean economy. The Sustainable Blue Economy Finance Principles were launched in 2018 to provide guidance on how this can be done in a way that aligns with SDG 14, Life Below Water. The principles cover 14 characteristics that signatories endorse, including being protective of the marine ecosystem, transparent with information, and science-led by approach. Other frameworks include the UN Global Compact Sustainable Ocean Principles, WWF’s Sustainable Blue Economy Principles and the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures, which offer guidance to the financial sector on responsibilities, standards, reporting metrics and certifications in relation to use of the ocean and marine environments.

Guidance to catalyse investment in a sustainable ocean economy includes taxonomies that determine the sustainability of economic activities. In the EU for example, maritime transport and vessels for port operations are part of the EU Taxonomy for Sustainable Activities, which aims to direct finance towards activities aligned with meeting the EU’s Green Deal objectives, including the target to achieve net zero by 2050. The inclusion of ocean-related activities in the taxonomy aims to encourage investment flows towards those activities. Other relevant guidance pertains to blue bonds: for example the International Capital Market Association’s bond guidance and the UN Global Compact blue bond guidance, which provide issuers and investors with pointers for structuring and issuing blue bonds.

How are different sectors involved in blue finance?

The maritime shipping industry has recently taken steps to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions associated with its activities. In 2023, the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) adopted a new strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from international shipping, which includes the goal of reducing emissions by at least 70% by 2040 compared with a 2008 baseline. All ships will need to calculate their energy efficiency and report carbon-related metrics based on new regulations, which aim to increase transparency about their activities and impact. The financial sector and private sector have collaborated to report emissions data and financing through the Poseidon Principles, a global framework for assessing and disclosing the climate alignment of financial institutions’ shipping portfolios. Currently, more than 80% of the world’s shipping companies are privately owned, with private equity funds, sale-leasebacks and bonds being prominent financing options.

In the tourism sector, financing is primarily from equity, working capital loans and corporate finance. Investment in sustainable coastal tourism is increasing, with varying roles for blue finance mechanisms: from providing attractive finance terms for loans to clean up polluted land and build tourism infrastructure, to extending insurance and financing adaptation measures to strengthen the resilience of coastal tourism infrastructure against the growing impacts of climate change.

In the seafood sector, several multinational corporations have used sustainability-linked loans and bonds to refinance their business operations, linking economic performance with investments and projects that support the health of the ocean. Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification was recognised in the UN Global Biodiversity Framework as an indicator to measure progress for targets related to sustainable wild species use. The Fishery Improvement Projects tool helps companies and governments to invest in the sustainable future of fisheries, as measured against the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation’s Status of Fisheries and the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation’s Status of the Stocks.

Examples of blue finance in action

Blue finance is being used in many ways to create positive impacts for the ocean. For example, capital and equity are being directed to blue economy-aligned activities through impact funds and impact investing. These include diversified funds aligned with maritime activities seeking to invest in emerging blue economy companies. Funds can be financed through not-for-profits such as the Nature Conservancy’s NatureVest programme and the MSC’s Ocean Impact Fund. Examples of innovative investment models include the Sea Change Impact Financing Facility, Hatch Blue and AquaSpark, which focus on investments in seafood, alternative proteins (e.g. seafood products made from fungi) and related technology. The private equity growth fund Ocean 14 Capital aligned its outcomes with SDG 14. And multiple philanthropic organisations have dedicated practices on the oceans, such as Packard Foundation, Walton Family Foundation and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.

Examples of sovereign blue bond issuances include the Seychelles Blue Bond, the Seychelles Blue Transition Bond, and the Fiji Green and Blue Bond. Other entities issuing blue bonds include private banks to support client projects that tackle marine pollution for example (e.g. BDO Unibank in the Philippines), and companies to finance sustainability- and conservation-related projects (e.g. Danish energy company Ørsted).

In 2022, a new blue finance programme called Blue Halo was launched at the G20 meetings in Indonesia. Blue Halo aims to use a blended finance approach to combine public and philanthropic capital with private sector investment to generate positive outcomes for ocean conservation, sustainable fisheries and livelihoods, aligned with the UN SDGs.

This Explainer is based on an original written by Darian McBain in May 2023, updated by Lea Reitmeier and Georgina Kyriacou in December 2024.