Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance
News
Dear ORRAA Members and Friends,
The countdown is on!
We are now 72 days away from the Blue Economy and Finance Forum (BEFF) and the Third UN Ocean Conference (UNOC3) where the Ocean, finance, science, and policy communities will be converging to ensure a regenerating and sustainable future for our ocean. We’ve created a policy overview to help our members and partners navigate the road ahead. Dive in to explore the key opportunities, timelines, and ways to engage.
Momentum is definitely building, with the ORRAA team taking to the road – or the water – in the last few months as we head towards June. From the Finance in Common Summit in Cape Town and the Economist World Ocean Summit in Tokyo, to Jack and I spending time on the East Coast of South Africa at the iSimangaliso (“place of wonder”) wetland park with Wildtrust and other partners working on financing for MPAs, to Chip and Winnie seeing first hand some of our brilliant UK-backed projects on the beachfronts in Tanzania and Kenya. I am writing this now from Europe, having just been at the Villars Institute Summit in Switzerland and the Monaco Blue Initiative, and we are days away from SOS Ocean in Paris.
All of that was preceded in January by the Soneva Coral Dialogue in the Maldives, followed quickly by Davos where we announced with Standard Chartered that they were joining the #BackBlue Ocean Finance Commitment, a joint initiative with the WEF. With Standard Chartered onboard, #BackBlue now encompasses nearly USD$2.7 trillion of assets under management to ensure that investment decisions are made with a blue lens.
And in February, our whole team and the ORRAA Inc. board was in Paris to meet and plan, and work with the AXA team. This was followed by a quick trip to London where we brought together the leaders of the Sea Change Impact Financing Facility (SCIFF) instruments to plan priorities for 2025, and were kindly hosted by Simmons & Simmons.
Our theme this quarter has been Insuring the Future.
From de-risking capital to building resilience for climate vulnerable coastal communities, insurance is key for a healthy and regenerating ocean. We have showcased how insurance can be a key tool to drive finance into Nature-based Solutions, increase financial resilience for communities, and help us navigate key data on ocean risks – take a look at the excellent thought leadership piece in our Project Syndicate, The Ocean Imperative series by Insurance Development Forum Secretary General, Ekhosuehi Iyahen to learn more.
As we now look forward to the BEFF, we are focusing on the theme of Creating a Capital Market for the Ocean.
Please welcome aboard our newest members: UN Global Compact, African Natural Capital Alliance, FSD Africa, INVERSA Leathers, Fair Carbon, Calvert Impact, Oceanic Global Foundation, and Ocean Impact Organisation!
As always, if you have any questions or would like to set up a call to catch up with the team, please do let us know. In addition, if you have any news you would like us to amplify, please send it to secretariat@oceanriskalliance.org or post it in the LinkedIn Comms Community Group.
Karen & the ORRAA team
