Quick Dips
Curated topical articles on the Blue Economy

TransOceanic Wind Transport harnesses the air for low-carbon shipping

Climate & Capital Media Team Energy Solutions Shipping & Ports

A blend of ancient and cutting-edge, TransOceanic Wind Transport uses wind-powered vessels to meet modern shipping needs.

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Data-driven, LED-powered smart fishing could help save ocean ecosystems

Climate & Capital Media Team Fisheries & Aquaculture

SafetyNet’s LED-powered Pisces system attracts target catch whilst repelling others, cutting down on millions of tons of wasted bycatch.

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This architecture firm makes houses from plastic in the seas

Climate & Capital Media Team Plastics & Pollution

SPARK Architects makes their signature beach huts using plastic waste collected from Singapore’s shoreline.

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The robot fish making seafood more sustainable

Climate & Capital Media Team Fisheries & Aquaculture

Aquaai’s mechanized surveillance swimmers are helping fish farms be more efficient and clean.

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Five Things to Know about Blue Bonds

María Alejandra Blanco-Iturbe, Mary Kate Currey, Suzanne Johnson

Blue bonds are emerging as an innovative way to fund ocean and water-related solutions, create sustainable business opportunities, and signal responsible ocean stewardship to the market. Ten years ago, a set of anchor issuances laid the foundation for the green bond market and, since then, the market has seen tremendous growth with more than $1 trillion in total issuances. Today, blue bonds are where green bonds were ten years ago, and the market is poised to see similarly fast growth.  But what are they exactly?

Read the full story here

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We cannot meet sustainable development goals with a sick ocean

Josep Lluís Pelegrí Llopart, The Conversation

Under the slogan “The science we need for the ocean we want,” the Decade of Ocean Science is based on the premise that ocean science should drive the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

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Five Things to Know about Blue Bonds

Samtani, M et al., IDB Invest

IDB Invest has partnered with the UN Global Compact to understand blue market opportunities in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). We present five key takeaways from our reference paper.

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ECOsubsea scrubs ship slime to save the seas

Climate & Capital Media Team Shipping & Ports

ECOsubsea cleans the "bio-fouling," i.e. accumulated sea slime on hulls, that makes ships less efficient and threatens ocean ecosystems.

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How finance is catching the blue wave

Carolin Leeshaa, KPMG Australia

Natural capital is a new finance context for the ocean and the blue economy.

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The Ship Sinking Off Sri Lanka Looks Like A Lasting Environmental Disaster

Ari Shapiro, NPR Plastics & Pollution Shipping & Ports

Its cargo is the concern: The ship was carrying dangerous chemicals, including 25 tons of nitric acid and 350 tons of fuel oil.

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The next big thing in plant-food? Sustainable seaweed.

Jyotika Bindra, Climate & Capital Media Fisheries & Aquaculture

Cascadia Seaweed believes its cornucopia of kelp could change the plant-based food world.

Read more → (4 minute read)


Here Are Three Sustainable Seafood Brands to Know for World Oceans Day

Tiffany Duong, EcoWatch Fisheries & Aquaculture

Just in time for World Oceans Day on June 8, three companies are using transparency, technology and traceability to innovate the seafood space.

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How the shipping sector is decarbonising

World Ocean Initiative, The Economist Group Shipping & Ports

The World Ocean Summit explored the roadblocks and opportunities—from innovation and technology to financing and collaboration.

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Can we harness the lunar power of waves? One Scottish firm is trying.

Climate & Capital Media Team Energy Solutions

Orbital Marine Power is harnessing Scotland’s ocean currents for sustainable power.

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The blue economy – a drop in the ocean

Anthony Cowell, KPMG

For an economy worth an estimated annual US$2.5 trillion, only US$13 billion has been invested over the last decade mostly through philanthropic efforts and official development assistance – a mere drop in the ocean.

The cost of not investing now will be more costly in the future.

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Monitoring the Collapse of Kelp Forests

NASA Earth Observatory

Off the coast of Sonoma and Mendocino counties, changing climate and a marine epidemic have combined to decimate one of California’s most productive ecosystems.

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BlueNalu’s cell-cultured seafood offers fresh fish without the catch

Climate & Capital Media Team

With global fisheries on the brink of collapse, BlueNalu’s land-grown fish and seafood could be the future of ocean eating.

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A giant new offshore wind project is set to power 10 million US homes

Sean Fleming, World Economic Forum Energy Solutions

Global offshore wind has grown from 2.2 gigawatts in 2016 to 6.1 gigawatts in 2020.

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Plastic Pollution Raises Beach Temperatures, Threatening Marine Life, Study Finds

Olivia Rosane, EcoWatch Plastics & Pollution

Plastic pollution threatens marine life in many ways, from entangling fish and seabirds to wreaking havoc on their digestive tracts when they mistake it for food.

Read more → (4 minute read)


Blue Bonds to Test Waters for Sustainable-Debt Demand in LatAm

Ezra Fieser, Bloomberg

A development bank is preparing to test whether the craze for sustainable debt extends to Latin America’s oceans.

Read more → (2 minute read)