The ocean is critical to sustaining life on earth and is a major driver of the global economy. The ocean absorbs a quarter of all CO2 emissions and generates 50% of the earth’s oxygen. The ocean also generates about US$2.5 trillion each year in annual goods and services, supporting multiple industries including global transportation, tourism, fishing and energy generation. Billions of people worldwide — especially the world’s poorest — rely on healthy oceans to provide jobs and food.

But as we all know, our oceans are under extreme pressure. Rapid changes across the ocean landscape have widespread implications for food security, livelihoods, coastal infrastructure, property damage, health and migration. It poses a major threat to communities, economies, and ecosystems. People in vulnerable coastal communities and Small Island Developing Nations (SIDS) are especially exposed.

We are already seeing the devastating impact of sea level rise, ocean warming, acidification, deoxygenation, marine pollution (8 million tonnes of plastic enters the ocean every year) and over- fishing (57% of fish stocks are fully exploited). Frequent extreme weather events and habitat destruction make coastal communities especially vulnerable and insurers alone have paid out more than $300 billion for coastal storm damage in the past 10 years (only a fraction of the bill footed by governments)

Senior representatives from across the finance, insurance, corporate, government and NGO communities discussed how to build global resilience throughout the ocean value chain, with a particular focus on investment opportunities and insurance solutions. With investors, ocean experts and policy-makers in dialogue, the goal was for proposed solutions that are not only action-oriented and ambitious, but also with key champions and specific next steps on implementation. The roundtable focused on identifying specific ideas and tangible next steps to mitigate the ocean- specific risks using all the tools at our disposal including finance, insurance, political influence and civil action.

It was clear that driving the kind of investment opportunities, risk mitigation solutions and financial incentives required to help restore ocean health and productivity (including for proper management of fisheries, sustainable aquaculture and protection of key habitats) will require a multi-sectoral approach. It was also evident that Goal 14 – Life Below Water - in fact impacted a majority of the Goals given the primacy of the ocean to all of life and would in deed require Goal 17 – Partnerships for the Goals.

Ultimately, we need to create new partnerships, policies, technologies, and business models to ensure the environmental health and economic vitality of the ocean and to build global climate resilience.