The ocean economy is currently at risk from multiple stressors, ranging from overextraction, direct habitat damage, pollution and climate change. Continuing with this ‘business-as-usual’ trajectory poses great risks to the health and integrity of the ocean and therefore to the world’s population. Ocean finance can play a critical role in changing this trajectory and helping to achieve a sustainable ocean economy (SOE).

The High-level panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy’s paper finds that many potential actions can be taken by the private and public sectors to remove existing barriers and open the pipeline to investment in a SOE.