Dear ORRAA Members and Friends,
It’s New York Climate Week. We are in a moment of geopolitical flux impacting economies and elections around the world – and we can certainly feel that on the streets of New York. On a positive note, the talk of the town is that the High Seas Treaty secured enough ratifications to enter into force early next year. Earlier this month, an historic deal to tackle unsustainable fisheries subsidies was agreed through the World Trade Organisation. And one of the most significant moments this quarter was a ruling from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which found that countries can be held accountable for emissions that are causing climate change. The case was brought by a group of young Pacific islanders with the backing of Vanuatu. The advisory opinion also reinforced that countries have a duty to “regulate private actors under their jurisdiction”, which could have future implications for corporate stakeholders.
All these mark critical milestones for action to reduce destructive and extractive activities in the Ocean, and refocus on keeping life in the sea. The Ocean and Climate communities have worked for decades on getting these done, so here’s a big shout-out to all those who have advocated for positive change and negotiated every word and comma. Thank you all!
Meanwhile an updated report on financing nature by the Paulson Institute published this week, found that over half of global GDP (USD$58 trillion) is dependent on nature. However, the biodiversity financing gap is only getting wider, projecting USD$942 billion of funding needed per year.
Unfortunately we also saw the Global Plastics Treaty negotiations fail to reach an agreement, while the International Seabed Authority meeting in July also saw continued disagreements on the rules regarding deep sea mining.
Given this emerging suite of ocean policy changes, ORRAA will be putting together a new policy brief to help our members understand what these shifts mean for blue finance. Stay tuned and, in the meantime, take a look also at the latest installment of the Ocean Imperative where ORRAA’s global lead banking partner, Deutsche Bank, focused on how we can rethink ocean finance.
As we head into the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Abu Dhabi and UNFCCC COP30 in Belém, we’ll continue to focus on how investing in a regenerating and sustainable ocean, is investing in a nature-positive and climate-positive future. We are also looking forward to working closely with our members in the coming months to confirm our new Steering Council and secure their input into our 2026-2028 strategy, building partnerships to achieve our collective mission.
In these final months of 2025, we’re all putting our hands and heads to work to scale finance for our ocean and ride the wave of momentum from the Blue Economy and Finance Forum and Third UN Ocean Conference back in June. We cannot afford to think about climate and biodiversity in separate silos, it is a matter of economic security. We have the financial innovations we need to build a more sustainable and resilient planet, and now we need to implement and scale.
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 to secretariat@oceanriskalliance.org.
Karen & the ORRAA team
