A Sustainable Ocean is an Investment Issue. It’s Time to Treat It Like One.
Tanya Cox and Rory Sullivan
On World Ocean Day, Chronos Sustainability joined the First Sentier MUFG Sustainable Investment Institute (FSI) to host a webinar on the Ocean Framework: An Investor Guide to Navigating Ocean Risks and Opportunities. The session brought together experts in sustainable finance, development economics, ocean science, disclosure and stewardship to explore why the ocean belongs in mainstream investment decision-making, and how investors can act. This blog summarises the key themes from that conversation.
Why does the ocean matter to investors?
There is only one ocean. It plays a central role in climate and weather regulation and is the largest interconnected ecosystem on Earth, home to more than 80% of the world’s biodiversity. Nearly 30% of the global population lives within 50km of a coastline, and over 3 billion people rely on seafood as their primary source of dietary protein. The ecosystem services derived from the ocean underpin the global economy and directly support sectors from shipping and seafood to offshore renewables, marine and coastal tourism, ports, sub-marine telecommunications and blue biotechnology.
Yet ocean health is declining. Overfishing, habitat destruction, coastal conversion, pollution and nutrient runoff are being compounded by climate change, driving marine heatwaves, acidification and falling oxygen levels. Investment in sustainable blue economy activities could generate significant positive economic benefits and reverse these drivers of decline but the significant gap in blue finance (recently estimated to lie in the region of US$ 550 billion per annum to 2030[1]), means declining ocean health is already creating financial risks through supply chain disruption, declining asset values, stranded infrastructure and regulatory exposure.
Why have investors been slow to act?
One striking theme from the webinar was the gap between the ocean’s economic importance and its integration into investment frameworks. As noted by Torsten Thiel of the Global Ocean Trust:
“97% of life is underwater. Most of our goods and services travel over the ocean... You would have thought that an ocean framing is a core approach.”
Titia Sjenitzer of the Blue Bond Accelerator reiterated this point, arguing that the ocean is often treated as an environmental backdrop rather than as economic infrastructure. Its services are hidden subsidies, absorbed into the cost structure of many sectors without being properly disclosed, priced or risk-managed.
What can investors do?
Christine Nordvold of Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM) was clear about the financial relevance of declining ocean health:
“We see ocean risks as financial risks... There is nowhere for us to hide and it’s not possible for us to divest our way out of trouble.”
Leading investors are already incorporating ocean health alongside land and water in their expectations for portfolio companies. Others are investing in ocean-related opportunities. For example, blue bonds — debt instruments structured to finance ocean-positive activities — have grown from a US$15 million inaugural issuance by the Seychelles in 2018 to more than US$20 billion in cumulative volume.
Recent issuances include corporate and sovereign bonds linked to marine protection, water sanitation and coastal infrastructure. Mangrove restoration, sustainable seafood and resilient coastal infrastructure are among the most frequently cited opportunity areas, with potential to deliver financial returns alongside outcomes for ocean resilience, coastal protection and food security. Blended finance, guarantees and results-based mechanisms can help turn these outcomes into investable propositions.
Martin Koehring of ODI Global – in a sentiment echoed by Oliver Tanqueray of CDP and Rebecca Nohl of the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD)) - emphasised that investors do not need to wait for perfect data:
“This Ocean Framework already gives a very practical entry point to identify the exposure, prioritise the sectors and companies, engage and improve disclosure, and assess opportunities.”
The Ocean Framework sets out a practical five-step process – with examples and practical tools - for investors looking to integrate the ocean into their investment processes:
1. Integrate ocean into policies and risk management. A clear policy baseline — whether within a nature strategy, responsible investment policy or standalone ocean expectations — signals priorities to companies and creates internal accountability.
2. Assess portfolio exposure. Investors can use the framework to define objectives, identify ocean-related sectors, heat-map exposure, prioritise companies, assess geographic links to sensitive marine areas, and translate dependencies and impacts into financial risks and opportunities.
3. Set disclosure expectations. Investors need decision-useful data on company pressures, governance, targets, transition plans and supply chain engagement. CDP is building ocean metrics into its platform, while NBIM’s expectations provide a reference point for engagement.
4. Engage portfolio companies. The accompanying guidance supports structured engagement on governance, strategy, risk management and metrics, with sector-specific questions for fisheries, aquaculture and marine transport.
5. Redirect capital. Better information enables investors to allocate away from ocean-degrading activities and towards companies, assets and projects supporting restoration, resilience and safe planetary boundaries.
The framework does not require investors to have deep ocean expertise before engaging. It is designed to meet investors where they are, whether they manage large, diversified portfolios or concentrated sector positions, and to build understanding iteratively.
Where to from here?
Ocean health is not a niche environmental issue. It is a systemic risk, a material dependency and an emerging opportunity space. The frameworks, guidance and data to begin acting exist, as do the investment products and strategies. The challenge for investors, now, is to turn this knowledge into practice, to manage ocean-related risks and dependencies in their investment portfolios and to make a substantive contribution to enhancing ocean health in the round.
Notes
The Ocean framework was developed by Chronos Sustainability in partnership with the First Sentier MUFG Sustainable Investment Institute. The Ocean Framework report and supplementary engagement guidance are available free to download from the First Sentier MUFG Sustainable Investment Institute website.
To discuss ocean-related issues with Chronos, email:tanya.cox@chronossustainability.com
