47 Interestingly, however, climate risk should not necessarily only be viewed as a barrier. A survey of investors by Credit Suisse found that investor interest in the blue economy reflects the perspective of ‘turning challenges into opportunities’ (Credit Suisse, 2020). They found that investors (whether owners or fund managers) viewed the blue economy as presenting great practical opportunities to resolve challenges of decline in ocean health and worsening climate change, over and above interest in traditional sectors such as shipping, fisheries, and even marine genetic resources. This highlights an important argument supporting the pivot to sustainable and circular economic models over current growth ones, that there are more opportunities in this shift than are commonly perceived, and they may in fact outweigh business opportunities in the current model, particularly as attitudes shift. To support this, firms seeking to develop blue economy activities, and the investors considering them, are asking for concessions to overcome barriers to entry that centre around climate change and its uncertainties and opportunities. That is, investors are calling for enabling conditions for future opportunities that may not yet be clear, not just calling for protection for ‘traditional’ business opportunities. This provides a strong environment for innovation and forward thinking in developing a sustainable blue economy and creating ‘new wealth’ and opportunities. From a more traditional ‘impact assessment’ perspective, any funder will need to assess at the very least whether proposed actions increase environmental or climate risk or reduce them. A process for identifying environmentally sustainable economic activities that meet ‘green’ criteria established by the EU (Europa, n.d ) may be adapted to this purpose, applying six principles and three performance thresholds to assess whether specific projects qualify for financing. The landscape of finance instruments deployed across multiple ocean sectors in the sustainable blue economy is already complex and varies by sector. However, these instruments are principally siloed in traditional sectoral boundaries. Finance for traditional ‘ocean economy’ versus ‘sustainable ocean economy’ sectors varies among both donors and recipients, with an increasing trend towards sustainable sectors. In addition, there is a growing set of initiatives emerging around key aspects of financing to deliver on sustainability goals, such as risk, or on thematic areas such as natural capital. A significant challenge in this novel landscape is the lack of established frameworks and taxonomies of sustainable blue economy finance (Sumaila et al., 2020). Initial steps have been made with the Blue Economy Finance Principles (WWF, 2014) in 2014, supplemented in the last two years through the UNEP Sustainable Blue Economy Finance Initiative (UNEPFI, 2020), Climate change —core to the African Development Bank’s strategy Main areas of perceived risk and b) main non-financial considerations across blue economy sectors Source: UNEPFI. (2020). Rising Tide: Mapping Ocean Finance for a New Decade. UNEP Sustainable Blue Economy Finance Initiative/European Commission, p. 79. <https://www.unepfi.org/publications/rising-tide/> Climate change Policy and regulatory changes Ecosystem service loss (e.g. due to biodiversity and/or habitat loss) Geopolitical risk Changing public sentiment and preferences Public health risk Illegal activity Commodity shocks Do not know Civil society action Other A B Climate resilience Capturing positive environmental impact Avoiding negative environmental impact Innovative approaches (e.g. use of new technology) Government support Avoiding negative social impact Capturing positive social impact NGO support Do not know 0% 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20% 5% 10% 15% 20% 20% 18% 16% 16% 15% 13% 9% 7% 3% 2% 19% 14% 11% 9% 7% 7% 6% 3% 3% 1%
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