Feet Must Get Wet to Accelerate the Agenda of a Sustainable Blue Economy

Just as evidence keeps piling about how human activities are largely responsible for stretching our ecosystem beyond its limits, there's also been a proliferation of terms and coinages addressing various solutions aimed at fostering the responsible stewardship of the environment while ensuring economic progress. One such concept that has become quite fashionable, especially in the last couple of years, is the blue economy. The term itself isn’t entirely new as it seems to have emerged from a meeting of small island developing states (SIDS) and coastal countries at the Rio Summit in 2012, the same year the EU launched its Blue Growth Strategy. However, what has incited much interest of late is the emphasis on the sustainability dimension of the blue economy which the?WWF defines?as a marine-based economy that supplies social and economic benefits for current and future generations. Such an economy restores, protects, and maintains the natural capital upon which it depends and is based on clean technologies, renewable energy, and circular material flows.

Knowing how much we rely on marine resources should help us better appreciate them and compel us to lend our weight to their restoration and preservation. The blue economy serves as the major food source for more than 50% of the world’s population. The world’s oceans and marine environment do not only play host to 80% of the earth’s biodiversity but also contribute nearly two-thirds of ecosystem services (flood control, storm protection, carbon sequestration, shoreline stabilisation, etc.) provided by global natural capital.

It has been estimated that?the world’s oceans have a value of USD 24 trillion, a figure that should double between 2010 and 2030. In the?EU alone, the blue economy generated EUR 750 billion in revenue in 2018 and also stimulated 5 million jobs, an 11.6% rise from the previous year that was mainly buffered by coastal tourism and offshore energy. The sector is projected to be worth?USD 4.1 trillion in the UK?by 2030.

There are however significant threats to the continuous supply of resources and services from the marine environment. Much of these come from the harmful methods that we’ve so much relied upon to extract marine resources and conduct other activities pertaining to the sector. The intense exploitation of fish stocks, for instance, has meant that?almost 57% of the world stocks of fish have been exploited while 30%?have been entirely exhausted, over-exploited, or are recovering. Apart from depleting the stocks of seafood, certain aquaculture practices, such as modes of shrimp farming that accelerate mangrove deforestation in parts of Asia, heighten the severity of sea storms.

Marine pollution has also built up due to the washing of soil nutrients from erosion into rivers and water bodies, combined with the dumping of untreated sewage and solid waste.??Added to all of these are rabid deforestation and construction of suboptimal infrastructure that have exacerbated the degradation of important habitats and destroyed the livelihoods of communities dependent on affected waters.

It is in recognition of these challenges that there’s been a resurgence in the momentum for the advancement of a sustainable blue economy, although global frameworks including the UN Law of the Sea Convention (1982) and the UN Global Programme of Action (1995) already exist. SDG 14 was specifically crafted to serve this purpose, and among other targets, it aims for an expansion of coastal and marine areas with protected status and the elimination of subsidies that buoy unreported and unregulated fishing.

Many countries and jurisdictions have also rolled out blue economy roadmaps to provide the upstream impetus and direction necessary for effective policy coordination and implementation, particularly when it comes to the themes of sustainability. Home to 38 coastal states and 6 SIDS, Africa launched its?Blue Economy strategy in 2019?with the goal of harnessing the potential of its seas and waters for transformational and inclusive growth. The African Union puts the continent's blue economy value as of today at USD 296 billion. It is expected to reach USD 405 billion by 2030, with nearly a fifth of that coming from sea-bed mining (see exhibit 1 for a framework of program interventions crucial for the success of a sustainable blue economy).

Beyond rolling out blueprints for a sustainable economy, it is important to ensure that policymakers and other stakeholders muster the will to enforce regulations and compliance with applicable conventions for the effective implementation of programs.

Moreover, there is a need for capacity building especially because the science governing marine resources and their interaction with the broader ecosystem is still evolving. Thanks to initiatives like the recently announced partnership between the?Norwegian Oceans for Development Programme and the UN Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea, SIDS and other developing coastal states can now have enhanced access to funded capacity-development programs to reinforce their ocean governance architecture.

Translating policies and plans into actions is never possible without an adequate amount of investment. Yet, SDG 14 (life below water) receives the least funding from development finance directed at the sustainable development goals. Certainly, public finance cannot be solely relied on to close the global gap in financing global sustainable development. But private-sector practitioners in the finance community often cite factors such as the lack of shovel-ready projects and the lack of predictable cashflows for some blue economy activities as the main reasons for their slow feet (see exhibit 1).

Understandable as these concerns may be, lessons from the success stories of projects in the blue economy have shown that with active engagement and dialogue among stakeholders, there are certainly creative ways to address these barriers (see exhibit 2 for highlights from a few initiatives). Although the full cost of not acting to protect the climate remains somewhat unclear, the benefits of acting, and acting swiftly, are obvious. After everything has been said, actions must follow. Investors and policymakers would have to get their feet wet if the potential of a sustainable blue would be achieved.?