It was great to speak about “Aligning investment, underwriting and lending activities with building a sustainable blue economy” at Bali Ocean Days.
My contribution was part of a session on “Impact Finance for a Sustainable Blue Economy”. Other sessions focused on marine conservation, technological solutions, sustainable seafood, pollution management, and blue carbon.
Key takeaways:
🌊 The Indonesian concept of gotong royong – the community coming together for mutual assistance – can help us address ocean challenges. We are all in this together!
🌊 Through its Blue Economy Roadmap Indonesia aims to increase the contribution of the blue economy to its GDP from 7.6% to 15% by 2045, creating 12 million new jobs by 2030.
🌊 Priority sectors include fisheries and aquaculture; marine-based industry; trade, transportation, and logistics; and tourism. Emerging sectors include renewable energy; biotech; research and education; and marine conservation.
🌊 Indonesia is the world’s second-largest seaweed producer (after China). However, most of this is exported as raw material for further processing into higher added value products (e.g. food, feed, fertilisers, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals) elsewhere.
🌊 A similar challenge – and opportunity – applies to tuna. Indonesia is the world’s largest tuna producer. Studies show that tuna could be a good source of meeting Indonesia’s domestic protein demand and food-security challenges, but the industry focuses on external demand.
🌊 Indonesia is home to 17% of the worlds blue-carbon reserves and several innovative community-led blue-carbon projects. Challenges include land ownership (tenure) and lack of technical capacity.
🌊 Indonesia has embraced innovative blue finance. In 2023 it issued its first sovereign blue bond in the Japanese debt capital market. Moreover, the Indonesia Coral Bond is the world’s first impact bond for coral-reef conservation. Other innovative blue financing mechanisms include the Blue Natural Capital Financing Facility (BNCFF), which supports marine protection, sustainable shrimp farming and blue carbon in Indonesia, as well as the Blue Carbon Accelerator Fund.
🌊 Financial institutions are critical in regenerating ocean health and wealth. Representing the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI), I spoke about aligning investment, underwriting and lending activities with building a sustainable blue economy.
🌊 There is growing momentum behind bringing business and biodiversity together in Indonesia and the wider region, for example via ASEAN’s Business and Biodiversity Initiative.
More about Bali Ocean Days here.
More about UNEP FIs Sustainable Blue Economy Finance Initiative here.
