Can ocean health lead to wealth? Our latest House on Fire podcast tackles blue finance

The sixth episode of House on Fire looks at the potential of blue finance. Can ocean solutions be economically as well as environmentally profitable? If so, could private finance unlock the innovation needed to reverse ocean degradation?

The ocean is estimated to generate an annual value of $1.5 trillion per year, making it the world’s seventh largest economy. But it's under pressure from a long list of harmful human activities, topped by ocean plastic, rising temperatures and coral bleaching.

In this episode, former EU fisheries minister Maria Damanaki tells us how private investment can make a profit out of ocean investment while restoring and protecting marine health. We speak to a range of investors who agree with her logic, as well as the entrepreneurs hoping to fund smart solutions to oceanic issues via the World Economic Forum’s new Uplink platform.

Kristian Teleki is the director of the Friends of Ocean Action platform and oversaw this year’s inaugural Uplink competition on the ocean. He describes what it's like to matchmake investors with creative entrepreneurs who want to see impact on the ocean.

We meet Olivier Raybaud, who blended a lifelong passion for the sea with significant financial acumen to create Blue Ocean Partners, an investment vehicle for ocean impact solutions.

On the other side of the table we talk to: John Seal, CEO of Oceanium, a start-up looking to make a wide range of products from sustainable seaweed; Roger Larsen of Pinovo, which has developed a new technology to eliminate plastic pollution from sandblasting of maritime assets like ships and oil rigs; Ahsan Tariq of CubeX, which uses blockchain technology to eliminate waste in the global shipping industry.

These are just a few of the hundreds of start-ups looking to attract capital for their schemes to save the ocean, whether in coral or mangrove restoration, plastic clean-up, marine conservation zones, or anything else. Will they succeed and what difference can they make?

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