Business and finance unite as UN Ocean Conference seeks to plug ‘life below water’ funding gap

Eighty organisations from across the world, including more than 50 businesses, called for all companies and governments to accelerate action for the preservation and sustainable use of oceans as the third UN Ocean Conference launched last week in Nice, France.

The Business Call to Action: Land and Sea, a Vital Connection for a Thriving and Resilient Economy was launched on 8 June at the Blue Economy and Finance Forum, a side event of the UN conference which took place in nearby Monaco.

The signatories, which have a combined turnover of €600bn and include insurance firm Axa, energy company EDF and ChangeNow, which runs an annual impact conference, “call on all stakeholders to act towards a healthy and productive ocean and to safeguard its role in sustaining the global economy and our future prosperity”.

They add: “The ocean offers vast opportunities for businesses and people alike in building a sustainable, inclusive global economy. To make these opportunities happen, it is imperative to ensure a healthy, productive ocean and its sustainable use.”

• Read more: Blue forests are under threat – this is what could save them

The text urges all businesses to “rapidly scale-up efforts” towards a sustainable use of oceans. In particular, they ask them to commit to measuring and disclosing their impact on the ocean, developing a “comprehensive strategy” to prevent and eliminate marine pollution and investing more in a sustainable blue economy.

The call to action (which the conference dubbed the “Business in Ocean” initiative) also exhorts policymakers to establish “ambitious” policies to stimulate business action, including developing “innovative finance mechanisms” to mobilise capital for ocean sustainability, such as blended finance, “blue bonds” (debt issued to finance projects to improve ocean sustainability) and sustainability-linked finance.  

Also announced in Monaco were three new members of the #BackBlue Ocean Finance Commitment, which brings together financial institutions that commit to take into account ocean sustainability and regeneration in finance and insurance decisions.

The new members, which include France’s largest bank BNP Paribas, sustainable asset manager Mirova and Eurazeo, bring the aggregated value of assets under management by BackBlue members to USD$3.45tn.

BackBlue members commit to drive investment into coastal and marine nature to halt biodiversity loss, accelerate the transition towards a healthy ocean ecosystem through investment, lending and insurance practices, and help build the resilience of coastal communities. They also commit to adopt net zero strategies and ESG-type impact disclosure.   

Life Below Water: the most underfunded SDG

The UN conference, presided by France and Costa Rica, was held in an effort to boost international commitments to protect the marine environment and develop a sustainable blue economy. 

Called the “2025 UN Conference to Support the Implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development”, the event brought together 15,000 delegates including 60 heads of state or governments. The US did not attend.

The participants failed to reach one of their key goals which was to gather enough support to implement the High Seas Treaty, an agreement adopted in 2023 to safeguard marine life in international waters. The number of signatories of the treaty, while growing from 23 to 50, fell short of the 60 needed for it to be implemented. Another 18 countries have committed to ratify it by September, according to conference organisers.

But at the heart of discussion was the question of how to finance a sustainable ocean economy: the UN’s sustainable development goal 14 (Life Below Water) is the most underfunded goal with a funding gap estimated at nearly US$150bn annually. 

The political declaration published at the end of the conference reaffirmed nations’ commitments to supporting SDG 14, focusing on conserving the ocean and its ecosystems, promoting sustainable ocean-based economies and accelerating action through international cooperation.

Recognising the need for “significant and accessible finance” for SDG 14, the declaration calls for governments to promote the “ocean-based economy” as an attractive investment opportunity for a wide range of capital providers including institutional investors (which currently allocate just 0.1% of their assets under management to the blue economy). This could be done through instruments such as “blue bonds” or “blue loans”, the document states.

It also highlights the role of governments and public-based investors such as multilateral banks in providing catalytic capital to scale finance for developing countries – in particular small island-states and the least developed countries.

• Read more: The social enterprise deploying young people to protect our seas

Ocean “at a tipping point”

Days before the conference, the UN Global Compact (a global initiative that brings together 20,000 companies to work towards the SDGs) published the Ocean Investment Protocol, a guide to mobilising capital towards a “strong and innovative sustainable ocean economy” at scale.

The paper provides recommendations for institutional investors, industry, governments and development finance institutions, with industry-specific roadmaps, policy support and highlights the catalytic role of development finance to support a healthy ocean economy.

The decisions we make now will determine the future of life below water and far beyond

“The ocean is at a tipping point – and the decisions we make now will determine the future of life below water and far beyond,” said Eric Usher, head of the UNEP Finance Initiative, a programme connecting the UN and investors for sustainability, which co-authored the report. “This protocol calls on public and private leaders alike to align capital with ocean health – because a thriving blue planet is a foundation for prosperity, resilience and global progress.”

A separate report by the World Economic Forum, the Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance, Builders Vision and Katapult Ocean, also published ahead of the conference, aimed to identify opportunities and challenges in the blue economy and presented case studies demonstrating how the blue economy can be an investment opportunity.

Header photo: In Madagascar, a fisherman uses traditional techniques to catch fish, which avoids over-fishing and depleting fish stocks. All images courtesy of Blue Ventures.