15.06.2018

Ocean Risk Summit – Resilience of the ocean through new financing approaches

More than 200 participants from the private and public sector including environmental and insurance experts met for the first Ocean Risk Summit from 8-10 May. The summit focused on the challenges posed by climate change and environmental pollution and represented innovative solutions strengthening the resilience of the ocean in the long term.
With 60% of the global population living close to the coastline, 3 bn people finding the main source of protein from the sea and more than 200 mn being directly or indirectly employed in the marine economy the ocean bears significant value to life on earth. This incredible contribution is being jeopardized due to climate change, especially global warming’s effects on sea temperature change the ocean and increase the frequency of weather-related disasters. Among other things, tropical cyclones will be more frequent and intense in the coming years trigging economic and ecological disasters for the local population. Furthermore, the consequences of ocean change also affect people far beyond the coastal and marine regions. Overall, the economic damage caused by weather-related disasters is estimated at 300 billion US dollars per year.
The Ocean Risk Summit presented analyses of the expected impacts of ocean changes and discussed possible solutions to existing and future challenges. In particular, it became clear that the ocean must be regarded holistically as ecosystems with a value chain.

Innovative financing solutions were also presented by various players such as the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank and the Global Ocean Trust. KfW Development Bank presented the multi-stakeholder InsuResilience Global Partnership including two specific climate risk insurance projects implemented by KfW as a mandate of BMZ: the InsuResilience Investment Fund (IIF) and the InsuResilience Solutions Fund (ISF).

Overall, the summit highlighted the challenges and risks of ocean change and, building on these, identified innovative approaches for strengthening resilience and adapting to climate-induced changes in the oceans. The G7 leaders Ocean Communique has included specific reference to addressing Ocean Risk and adopting measures to address it.