The Ocean Finance Handbook - Increasing finance for a healthy ocean

This Ocean Finance Handbook has been developed for Friends of Ocean Action as part of the wider effort to transition towards a sustainable blue economy. The Handbook seeks to provide a reference document to support calls for an increase in finance flowing towards sustainable ocean-based industry and marine conservation. In so doing, the aim is to foster understanding and generate conversations between financial institutions and marine-based businesses, conservation professionals and programme managers.

The report is structured as a guide for a wide and diverse audience: covering, in simple terms, the meaning of ‘ocean finance’, its current state, and the mechanisms available for investing in different sectors of the blue economy. It discusses, in sequence;

• the sectors of the sustainable blue economy and their noteworthy investment trends;
• the pre- and co-requisites for financing, and;
• the types and sources of investment capital, and finally a selection of the most prominent
• investment models available for the sustainable blue economy at time of writing.

The Handbook includes five case studies that demonstrate how finance has been structured for specific sectors of the sustainable blue economy, showcasing through real-world examples how different investment models and opportunities for impact can align. These case studies, spread throughout the paper, feature insights into innovative structures or approaches in the realms of: impact investing, parametric insurance, using philanthropic capital, seed investment, and bond issuances.