Quick Dips
Curated topical articles on the Blue Economy

Leading investors urge governments to end support for fossil fuels

• Jasper Jolly, The Guardian • Energy Solutions

Group controlling $41tn in assets sign joint statement calling on world leaders to bolster net zero targets.

Read more → (4 minute read)


Our future depends on the health of the ocean

• Margaret Leinen, The Hill

Far too few people realize that the futures they expect to have actually depend on the health of the ocean.

Read more → (4 minute read)


This Maine fishery makes the eel trade more sustainable

• Climate & Capital Media Team • Fisheries & Aquaculture

The global eel trade is inhumane, corrupt and an environmental disaster. Maine-based American Unagi gives chefs a carbon-free, local eel option.

Read more → (3 minute read)


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.

Read more → (4 minute read)


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.

Read more → (2 minute read)


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.

Read more → (5 minute read)


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

Read more → (5 minute read)


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.

Read more → (6 minute read)


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.

Read more → (5 minute read)


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.

Read more → (5 minute read)


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.

Read more → (8 minute read)


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.

Read more → (5 minute read)


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.

Read more → (5 minute read)


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.

Read more → (4 minute read)


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.

Read more → (5 minute read)


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.

Read more → (6 minute read)


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.

Read more → (5 minute read)