UNEP FI’s Sustainable Blue Economy Finance Initiative empowers banks, insurers, and investors to take action on ocean sustainability. We provide open-access, science-backed tools and practical guidance to help financial institutions make the transition toward sustainable lending, investing and insurance practices in the blue economy.
Our top publications
Turning the Tide: How to Finance a Sustainable Ocean Recovery
Designed for banks, insurers and investors, the guidance outlines how to avoid and mitigate environmental and social risks and impacts, as well as highlighting opportunities, when providing capital to companies or projects within the blue economy. Download here.
Diving Deep: Finance, Ocean Pollution and Coastal Resilience
This science-based, actionable toolkit aims to help banks, insurers and investors align decision-making with a healthy ocean and a sustainable blue economy. Download here.
Ocean Investment Protocol
The Ocean Investment Protocol is a framework for financial institutions, policy makers and industry leaders to lead the growth of the sustainable ocean economy to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 14 — Life Below Water — and other related SDGs. Download here.
Latest publications.
Recommended Exclusions for Financing a Sustainable Blue Economy
UNEP FI’s recommended exclusions list for a sustainable blue economy presents an overview of activities to exclude from financing due to their damaging impact on the ocean and high risk. Download here.
Harmful Marine Extractives
A series of briefing papers on harmful marine extractives. These practical, science-based resources have been designed for banks, insurers and investors wishing to understand the risks associated with deep-sea mining, off-shore oil and gas, and dredging and marine aggregate extraction.
Setting Sail: Target Setting in the Sustainable Blue Economy
The manual enables institutions to set targets that align with leading guidance and supports the transition to a Sustainable Blue Economy, in line with the objectives of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the Paris Agreement. Download here.
The Rising Tide: Mapping Ocean Finance for a New Decade
This report maps the current state of ocean finance revealing trends in lending, underwriting and investment activities which impact the ocean. It reveals the frameworks and financial instruments that are successfully addressing ocean sustainability and highlights new opportunities and gaps in the market. It looks across five major ocean-linked sectors chosen for their established connection with private finance: seafood, ports, maritime transport, coastal and marine tourism and marine renewable energy. Download here.
Unwrapping the risks of plastic pollution to the insurance industry
This report shows that plastic pollution risks can affect insurance and investment portfolios in the form of physical, transition, liability and reputational risks. These range from threats to human health to evolving liability claims connected to marine litter and plastic pollution should be closely monitored by insurers in coming years. Download here.
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Other resources
Restoring ocean health through finance: Dennis Fritsch, former Sustainable Blue Finance Lead at UNEP FI and Dorothee Herr, Oceans & Climate Change Manager at IUCN discuss ocean health, its role in regulating the global climate, its economic value and the role that financial institutions can play in restoring this vital ecosystem. In this compelling conversation, they also introduce us to UNEP FI’s Sustainable Blue Economy Finance Principles and IUCN’s Blue Natural Capital Financing Facility, helping financial institutions and project developers take part in a sustainable blue economy.
Financing a just transition to a sustainable economy: Including social equity considerations in investment decisions and processes is critical for the blue economy to deliver its full potential in addressing global challenges. In this episode, we look at the human dimension of the sustainable blue economy, focusing on the role of financial actors. Five experts from the academic, NGO and finance communities join the conversation, giving insights on how organisations can finance a blue economy that is sustainable, economically viable, and socially equitable.
View our case studies here.