Martin Koehring 🌏 Global Blue Economy and Sustainability Expert | Ocean Futurist | Charity Board Trustee | TEDx Speaker

An estimated 150 million more people were suffering from hunger in 2021 than there had been in 2019. Reversing this worrying trend - and restoring progress towards zero hunger - will require a significant uplift in financing for agri-food systems. I was the project director of a new Economist Impact study on this topic.

My article on the "Three reasons why 2023 could be the year of blue carbon" has been published in UN Today, the official magazine of United Nations international civil servants in Geneva. The article explores how blue carbon is vital in addressing the three interconnected planetary crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution.

I am at Economist Impact’s Sustainability Week in London to moderate exciting sessions in areas such as regenerative agriculture, circular construction, the future of aviation, and supply-chain decarbonisation.

Economist Impact’s tenth annual World Ocean Summit & Expo took place from February 27th to March 1st in Lisbon, Portugal. The summit featured 188 speakers in more than 50 sessions across the three days, attracting more than 1,500 registered attendees. The month of March also celebrated International Women's Day and Women's History Month.

Economist Impact’s 10th World Ocean Summit wrapped up successfully on March 1st, having convened more than 1,000 delegates and almost 200 high-level speakers in Lisbon to discuss how to build a sustainable ocean economy. My six key takeaways from the World Ocean Summit are summarised here.

Economist Impact's 10th annual World Ocean Summit and Expo in Lisbon in late February and early March will feature at least 180 speakers and 1,500 attendees with a focus on “Tackling the greatest challenges facing the ocean: climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution”. Ahead of the summit the World Ocean Initiative highlights blogs from some of the speakers.

Economist Impact's World Ocean Summit (February 27th-March 1st in Lisbon) celebrates its 10th anniversary this month. I am looking forward to moderating many exciting sessions at the summit, on diverse topics from closing the finance gap to meet SDG14 and scaling private-sector blue finance to harnessing “blue biotechnology” and developing blue carbon projects.

I recently spoke with Dieter Brockmeyer and Christian Salow for their "Two the power of MORE" podcast to explain how to unlock the power of the ocean to address the three major planetary crises: climate change, biodiversity, and pollution.

The World Ocean Summit in Lisbon at the end of February and early March will bring the ocean community together to inspire ocean solutions. This year will be vital in making progress on building a sustainable ocean economy in order to tackle the three interconnected planetary crises: climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution.

The ocean is the world’s largest carbon sink and our biggest hope in the fight against climate change. Tune in to the latest episode of Beyond Business with Wärtsilä as I talk with Atte Palomäki and Andrea Morgante about how to build a sustainable ocean economy.

A new year - a new opportunity to build momentum for a strong sustainability agenda. In a new blog post for Economist Impact's Sustainability Project, I highlight the top 5 sustainability and climate trends to watch in 2023, and why stronger collaboration will be required to accelerate progress this year.

As 2022 draws to a close, Economist Impact's World Ocean Initiative celebrates some of the key achievements of the year, including progress on a global plastics treaty and the acceleration of blue carbon markets.

The time to start building better is now. Population growth and rising demand for housing mean construction is expanding at a faster rate than efforts to reduce energy consumption. But only a tiny fraction of properties are carbon neutral. Next week I will be moderating a virtual panel discussion on “Constructing change".

Three inspiring innovators, leading the way for a sustainable ocean economy, have won the World Ocean Initiative’s Ocean Changemakers Challenge, supported by Destination Canada. The competition aims to showcase the outstanding changemakers—mainly early-career researchers or professionals—working to develop business solutions to ocean-related sustainability challenges.

Tomorrow I will moderate Economist Impact’s Sustainable Cities Talk. According to data from the World Bank, cities are already home to 56% of the global population—and that percentage will continue to grow in the coming decades. The United Nations Environment Programme estimates that cities also contribute to 75% of global carbon emissions.

COP27 represents the last realistic chance to adopt decisive climate action to limit global heating to 1.5°C. The Egyptian COP27 Presidency has set four key focus areas: mitigation, adaptation, finance and collaboration. In a new preview on Economist Impact’s Sustainability Project platform I explain why COP27 is a critical event for climate action.

Consumer companies have talked about sustainability for decades, but the need for immediate action has never been stronger. Join me and industry leaders in this webinar to hear about a new study we just released that explores the potential of collaboration to scale sustainability initiatives.

I have published a blog that summarises my keynote speech at the recent 30th anniversary celebration of the John Nurminen Foundation. It focuses on shifting the ocean narrative from negative connotations to positive ones.

I recently spoke about the importance of ocean ecosystems at the Valuing Natural Capital Conference 2022 in Geneva, organised by Geneva Macro Labs. My summary blog has just been published on Economist Impact's Sustainability Project.

I was invited by the John Nurminen Foundation to provide the keynote speech at its 30th anniversary in Helsinki. The foundation does lots of great work to save the Baltic Sea and its heritage for future generations. I was honoured to speak about the opportunities of building a sustainable ocean economy in the Baltic Sea and beyond.