The ORRAA News – Q4 2024

Dear ORRAA Members and Friends,

As we head into the final weeks of 2024, we look back at three months of globally significant convenings across climate and nature.

From the Global Nature Positive Summit in Australia, to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Samoa, which delivered a new Ocean Declaration, to the Convention on Biological Diversity’s (CBD) COP16 in Cali, Colombia, and then finally, the UNFCCC COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan. 

Given the reality that 2024 is on track to be the warmest year on record and first year that exceeds 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, heightened ambition and commitment are essential. The final agreement by governments to set a target of providing “at least” USD$300billion of climate finance by 2035 at the end of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change’s COP29, signals just a starting point from which to move forward into 2025 and the UN Ocean Conference, Blue Economy and Finance Forum, and of course, COP30 in Brazil. Brazil’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Marina Silva said in an interview immediately following the COP, “I often say that society is doing its part, and science is doing its part. The ones who need to step up are the governments and companies.”

ORRAA has drafted a statement in response to the finance outcome of COP29 and we are asking all our members to sign-on to it so that we can share it with President Macron and President Lula as we look to 2025 as a year in which to catalyse change. 

Our theme this quarter has been Climate + Ocean = Planet.

We know that there is no healthy planet or stable climate without a sustainable and regenerating ocean. Minister Silva was on message in the same interview when she said, “We need to see nature as the solution to many of the problems we face, with biodiversity at the core of it all. Respecting nature helps solve problems and prevents the creation of new ones related to CO2 emissions, such as deforestation and the excessive use of natural resources like coal, oil, and gas. All the answers are already in nature whether by transforming it to enhance solutions or preserving it to maintain ecosystem services.”

As a multi-sector Alliance, we know that responsibility flows both ways. Governments must meet their funding responsibilities under the Paris Agreement while also activating private sector finance at the scale we need. ORRAA and our members have been driving action from the ground-up, tackling the missing middle and scaling finance from the top-down to help build a capital market for the Ocean. 

We need to continue to build on this momentum to ensure an action-focused Blue Economy and Finance Forum (BEFF) and a successful Third UN Ocean Conference (UNOC) in June next year. (Don’t forget to register for special accreditation for UNOC by 13th December!) 

And finally, congratulations to all the partners involved in the new Bahamas impact bond which is expected to generate an estimated USD$124 million for nature and climate over the next 15 years! Many of the bond’s backers are ORRAA members/funders: Standard Chartered, Builders Vision, TNC, AXA XL, and IDB. We couldn’t be more excited about the cross-sector collaboration that they have put into practice to finance nature and resilience! This is just one of a number of impressive collaborations by our members driving investment into coastal and ocean resilience. Read on to learn more about the world’s first small scale fisheries impact bond, a loan facility and parametric insurance for marine protected areas, and the Ocean Earthshot Prize finalists and winners! 

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 

Quarterly highlights

ORRAA Projects in Action

Chip Cunliffe and Constance Wong from ORRAA’s Innovation and Pipeline Development team made a stop en route to COP16 to visit our project partners, Fondo Accion, to see the amazing work they are doing to implement parametric insurance for coral reefs. We saw first-hand the resources, capacity, and local expertise that is needed to build resilient reefs and where finance needs to be deployed to scale these solutions. Read more about it.

One of ORRAA’s supporting partners to the MAR fund, Fondo Acción in action in Colombia

At COP 16,we also announced five innovative new projects being funded through the UK’s Blue Planet Fund. They include: working with local partner ICLEI in India to build a sustainability-linked bond to invest in Nature-based Solutions (NbS); investing with AFO Tanzania to create a seaweed-as-a service platform to support women-led businesses; pioneering a new Blue Carbon Exchange with CI-Atebey Foundation in the Dominican Republic; and, collaborating with WWF to deliver innovative seascape financing in the South West Indian Ocean region. 

Earthshot finalist and ORRAA project partner Coast 4C in the Philippines

At the start of November, our project partner Coast 4C was selected as a finalist for the EarthShot Prize 2024. Coast 4C is leading work to accelerate regenerative seaweed farming to build the resilience of communities that rely on Marine Protected Areas. The High Ambition Coalition for Nature & People, an ORRAA partner, was also a finalist, and won this year’s award! This makes two back to back years that ORRAA projects were recognised as EarthShot finalists, with ABALOBI making it to the final round in 2023. Through incubating and supporting these projects, we are proving that a pipeline of investable solutions exists by working with the incredible entrepreneurship and ingenuity of local leaders on the ground. Congratulations all!

Earthshot finalist and ORRAA project partner Coast 4C in the Philippines

Better Data. Better Decisions. Better Outcomes.

In October, we rolled out the new data platform for the Coastal Risk Index (CRI), which highlights that USD$363 billion of coastal assets and 14.2 million people would be at risk of flooding without mangroves and coral reefs.

This tool puts actionable data into the hands of investors, policymakers, and insurers, making clear that investing in nature is essential to manage and mitigate coastal risks. Watch the CRI film below. 

ORRAA is also collaborating with Global Fishing Watch and TMT on the Vessel Viewer risk assessment tool to equip insurers with data and insights on whether a vessel may be engaging in illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing. We hosted a webinar to highlight the release of Vessel Viewer’s new features and how it can be used by insurers to limit their risk exposure by removing access to insurance for IUU vessels, ultimately acting as a deterrent. We’re now working with partners to move this all forward so that insurers can continue to use Vessel Viewer to ensure that what they insure isn’t engaging in illicit fishing.

Understanding Finance Needs for Small Island States

Karen Sack and Angelique Pouponneau met with leaders from Fiji, Samoa, Antigua and Barbuda, Seychelles, Tuvalu, and Tonga, among others, as ORRAA co-hosted a side event with the Commonwealth Blue Charter to discuss the Ocean Declaration and to highlight the Commonwealth Blue Finance Working Group which we are leading together. This Group aims to spark collaboration between countries on sharing best practice and identifying opportunities to scale blue finance. 

Implementing a High-Quality Blue Carbon Market 

With Conservation International at COP16, we launched a Practitioner’s Guide for the High Quality Blue Carbon Principles and Guidance to ensure the Principles become practice. The Guide empowers practitioners to deliver stronger, more effective blue carbon initiatives and informs due diligence processes for investors and buyers, providing a clear pathway for all blue carbon projects to achieve high-quality standards.  

Addressing the Ocean Finance Gap

At COP29, with the Ocean and Climate Platform we launched “Unpacking Ocean Finance for Climate Action” to inform countries on how the ocean can be incorporated into climate finance strategies. The paper called for developing clear ocean climate finance standards, enhancing the ocean priorities in the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG), prioritising ocean responses in the Loss & Damage Fund, counting ocean targets countries’ Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), and enhancing the ocean in the Global Goal on Adaptation. 

Advancing the Sea Change Impact Financing Facility

At COP16, we announced further support through the UK’s Blue Planet Fund for establishing the Nautilus Blue Guarantee Company, being developed by the Development Guarantee Group and ORRAA. Nautilus was highlighted by International Financing Review for the work they are doing to de-risk investments in the Ocean under ORRAA’s SCIFF. Outrigger Impact was also spotlighted by Environmental Finance as a key ocean impact fund that will activate investment into the sustainable and regenerative blue economy of SIDS. Both initiatives are key components of how we are kickstarting a capital market for the Ocean. 

ORRAA attended COP29 (top left), the Global Nature Positive Summit (top right), COP16 (bottom left) and CHOGM this quarter (bottom right)

New Team Members

The ORRAA team continues to grow, and we are delighted to welcome onboard Amelia McKinlay who joins us as Senior Associate on our Communications team. Welcome Amelia!   

The power and strength of our Alliance is our members. We achieve more together than we do alone.

We achieve far more working together than we ever could alone. 

ORRAA surpasses 100 Members

This past quarter we welcomed onboard our newest members: Howard Kennedy, the Indonesia Ocean Justice Initiative, ICLEI, and CI-Ataby. As we reach the end of 2024, ORRAA now has 107 members, including 29 finance and private sector institutions, 22 governments and multilateral organisations, and over 50 NGO and academic partners. See our full network here. 

WWF Webinar on TNFD

The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosure (TNFD) is a key framework for the private sector to understand and report on their exposure to biodiversity risks (read more in our policy brief here). WWF will be hosting a webinar on “Understanding Nature-related Risks on Land and in the Ocean” on December 12th, at 10:00 am ET.  The session is designed for companies and financial institutions in the global seafood, agriculture, or maritime shipping sectors. Register for the session here. 

Rare Launches World’s First Small-Scale Fisheries Impact Bond 

At New York Climate Week, Rare, one of our founding members, launched its Small-Scale Fisheries Impact Bond after raising US$6 million. The Bond will support the community-based management systems of local fisheries. Through the UK’s Blue Planet Fund, ORRAA is one of the outcome funders for this Bond. 

Blue Alliance Launches Impact Loan Facility for Marine Protected Areas 

Blue Alliance and BNP Paribas have launched the new “Blue Finance” impact loan facility for marine protected areas (MPAs). BNP Paribas has provided initial funding of up to USD$2.4 million. The facility will be implemented in Indonesia, the Philippines, Tanzania, and Cabo Verde to support the livelihoods of 110,000 local people and support the restoration of 1.8 million hectares of coral reefs.

AXA Climate Renews MPA Parametric Insurance 

At COP16, AXA Climate announced it would be renewing parametric insurance coverage in the Philippines for 88 MPAs, in partnership with Blue Alliance and Howden. The parametric insurance policy provides crucial coverage to local small-scale fishers after cyclones to improve their financial resilience and to provide financing for recovery efforts, coral reef restoration, and business interruption for local industries.

Standard Chartered Report on Transitioning the Blue Economy

Alongside the Ocean Impact Navigator and the Earthshot Prize, Standard Chartered launched a new report highlighting the finance opportunities to transition to a sustainable blue economy. The report outlines almost 70 solutions that are aligned with nature-positive actions and where capital can be deployed to support the targets of the Global Biodiversity Framework. 

Blue Economy and Finance Forum (BEFF)

ORRAA is working closely with the BEFF organising committee, led by Monaco as well as France, Costa Rica, the WEF, High Level Panel for a Sustainable Blue Economy and other Steering Committee members, with leadership from BEFF Co-Chairs,  Pascal Lamy and Palau’s UN Ambassador, H.E. Ilana Seid, to ensure an impactful convening in June next year ahead of the Third UN Ocean Conference. We will be providing updates on the BEFF each quarter to highlight progress and where members can engage. To stay up to date, please explore the newly launched BEFF website.  

On our “seaway” from 2024 to the BEFF, we are building momentum around the #BackBlue Ocean Finance Commitment in collaboration with the WEF. AXA, Deutsche Bank, WTW and Palladium have all joined #BackBlue. As Markus Mueller, Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer ESG & Global Head of Chief Investment Office Private Bank at Deutsche Bank said when they joined, “a healthy global economy requires a healthy ocean.” If you’re interested in backing blue, let us know!  
 

We are also partnering with AXA and Project Syndicate to highlight key thought leadership pieces in the run up to June next year. The first article on “Charting a Course for Coastal Resilience” by Karen Sack was launched this quarter to highlight the need for cross sector collaboration to activate financing for coastal resilience. 

Upcoming Events

Along the way to BEFF and UNOC, the ORRAA community will be participating in key events to continue to build momentum for the ocean. Please let us know if there are additional events in which your organisations are taking part: