COP30 and the High Seas Treaty

Global ocean governance and climate policy was one of the most consequential developments of 2025 with the ratification and imminent legal implementation of the High Seas Treaty. Formerly known as the Agreement on Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ Agreement), the high seas treaty is a landmark global governance instrument designed to protect biodiversity in international waters.

By September, the treaty secured 60 ratifications, triggering its adoption into international law and paving the way for wider enforcement in 2026. Its central aim is to help conserve 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030, a critical environmental milestone that had been decades in the making. And, by the end of November, the treaty had won the 2025 Earthshot Prize, signalling its global importance and catalysing broader ocean-finance dialogue at COP30, the 30th session of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Belém, Brazil.

There, the ocean narrative was brought to the forefront of climate discussions, underlining oceans as both climate mitigators and essential economic systems. This was also a key tenet of the 2025 World Ocean Day theme: ‘Catalysing Action for Our Ocean & Climate’, which aimed to put the ocean, a critical natural capital asset, at the centre of any climate change discussions.

Backed by partners like Ocean Conservancy, the Ocean & Climate Platform, and the World Resources Institute, COP30 saw the expansion of the Blue NDC Challenge to 17 members with new additions including Belgium, Canada, Indonesia, and Singapore. Originally launched at the UN Ocean Conference in France in June with 11 founding members, the Blue NDC Challenge calls for all countries to place the ocean at the heart of their climate plans, known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).

By incorporating solutions such as sustainable fisheries, marine conservation, decarbonising shipping and developing offshore renewables into NDCs, investment is attracted and finance accelerated for ocean-based projects that could protect marine ecosystems and at the same time unlock the ocean’s potential for climate mitigation and adaptation.

Blue Economy: Growth & Investment Opportunities

A recent OECD report found that if the ocean were a country, it would be the world’s fifth-largest economy. Ocean services provide income for 600 million people globally, and contribute to the lives of billions. A European Union report estimates that the blue economy contributes hundreds of billions in economic output and millions of jobs, with sectors spanning fisheries, maritime transport, tourism, aquaculture, and offshore renewables.

In the EU alone, recent data points to a near €250 billion to €263 billion gross value contribution and nearly five million jobs in ocean-linked economic activity. Yet, currently, just 1% of global climate finance supports ocean-related solutions to climate regulation and food security services. The Baku to Belém Roadmap, released before COP30 and inspired by COP29, however, points to the importance of more funding going towards oceans, highlighting the need to scale ocean finance as “critical” for the future.

Phenix Capital’s 2025 Blue Economy Impact Funds report highlighted that, in April when the report was published, there were only five pure-play impact funds focusing on UN Sustainable Development Goal 14: Life Below Water, and only 6.6% of the impact funds in the Phenix Capital database were dedicated to blue economy. That said these numbers represent a 463% growth in number of funds in a decade, suggesting a changing tide. Dedicated vehicles, such as blue bonds, sustainable ocean funds, and blended finance mechanisms, are vital to bridge capital and impact.

To this end, this year saw, T. Rowe Price and the International Finance Corporation launch the T. Rowe Price Emerging Markets Blue Economy Bond Strategy, aimed at catalysing the corporate blue bond market. The bond fund raised $200 million from investor such as Xylem Inc., a water solutions company and Builders Vision.

The year is ending with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) approving a $500 million loan to support a sustainable blue economy in the Philippines, having reached a $150 million blue finance agreement to scale sustainable aquaculture in Thailand earlier in the year. The latter agreement is targeting improved shrimp production practices and supports small farmers with innovation and training. The ADB is specifically investing in sustainable blue economies for poverty alleviation in Asia and the Pacific and these deals exemplify how blended, cross-sector investment can both reduce environmental risk and unlock economic value, from nutritious blue foods to resilient coastal infrastructure.

A blue food solution

Right now climate and conflict have exacerbated lack of food and hidden hunger from nutritionally inadequate protein-deficient diets, which means that today there are 319 million people in 67 countries that are acutely food insecure and 38% of the global population are currently either overweight or obese.

Food insecurity, together with public health and greenhouse-gas emissions are three global risks that need to be solved if we ever want to reach meet the SDGs and hope to more feed 10 billion with nutrient dense high-quality protein by 2050, without degrading the planet. This year, the Ocean 14 Capital Fund 1 took a step towards this with its investment in Enthos, which aims to scale organic waste-derived insect protein.

Despite the substantial scientific evidence that links diets with human health and environmental sustainability, the absence of globally agreed scientific targets for healthy diets and sustainable food production has hindered large-scale and coordinated efforts to transform the global food system. To address this, the EAT-Lancet Commission convened 37 leading scientists from 16 countries in various disciplines to develop global scientific targets for healthy diets and sustainable food production.

The result, the second 2025 EAT–Lancet Commission Report on Food Systems, represents a major update to the original 2019 framework, now highlights that blue foods—specifically fish, seafood, and aquatic plants—are a key source of sustainable protein and are essential to achieving nutritional, environmental and food security goals.

Moreover, a study published in Nature as part of the wider Blue Food Assessment found that increasing the consumption of low-emission blue foods could cut annual global  emissions by a gigaton or more compared to continued reliance on land-based animal alternatives. On top of this, in 2025, within the aquaculture sector, global standards and ESG frameworks advanced, driven by industry bodies like the Global Seafood Alliance, released updated salmon farming standards with enhanced emphasis on human rights, animal welfare, biosecurity and environmental protection.

Ocean 14 Capital Fund 1’s own portfolio companies are active participants in this evolution. Firms like SyAqua and AquaExchange are contributing genetic innovations, alternative feeds and data analytics that enhance productivity while reducing environmental footprints; core elements for resilient and investor-ready blue food systems.

Pollution & Ocean Technology

Decarbonising maritime transport—a historically challenging sector—showed progress this year. Shipping is responsible for 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions but is not covered by the Paris Agreement. Earlier in 2025, the International Maritime Organization finalised an agreement to cut shipping carbon emissions, laying groundwork for climate-aligned shipping practices. Starting in 2028, ships will be required to adopt cleaner fuels or face penalties. This deal is the first-ever international mandate on emissions targets for the shipping industry, but there are headwinds.

Environmental science suggests that emerging routes such as the Arctic Sea Route between Europe and Asia, which is opening due to melting ice, could increase total shipping emissions. Moreover, they could and introduce new ecological threats, particularly black carbon impacts and oil spill risks. This underscores the importance of combining policy with monitoring technology from innovators such as Sofar Ocean, whose sensing platforms improve understanding of shipping impacts in sensitive regions.

Technology such as AI and remote sensing tools to detect hazards like ghost fishing gear, which comprises 30% of total plastic waste in the oceans, are gaining traction, supporting cost-efficient ecosystem monitoring and cleanup strategies. WWF Germany has partnered with Accenture and Microsoft AI for good to develop ‘Ghost Net Zero AI’ a software identifying ghost nets in the ocean.

With collection programmes in six countries, 1,000+ tonnes of discarded nets are collected yearly and recycled Nylon sold to 20+ brand partners under the company’s NetPlus® trademark, Bureo has pioneered turning harmful discarded fishing nets into recycled raw materials used by brands such as Patagonia, Toyota, and Trek. Yet addressing plastic pollution remains a defining challenge. Scientific studies have revealed that nano plastics may be vastly underestimated in the oceans, raising alarms about ecological and human health impacts and stimulating interest in recycling infrastructure and circular economy solutions.

2026: Investing in an ocean-powered future

In 2025, we saw breakthroughs in ocean governance, financing and industry standards and 2026 looks set to expand this momentum. The team at Ocean 14 Capital hopes to see: the implementation of the High Seas Treaty, enabling wider marine protected areas and enforcement frameworks; growth in blue investment products particularly blue bonds that have gained renewed momentum following the United Nations Ocean Conference in June 2025; advances in marine renewables, particularly offshore wind, wave and tidal technologies; and the expanded integration of ocean measures in national climate strategies, particularly under enhanced NDC frameworks emerging from COP30.

The ocean is both a climatic linchpin and an economic engine; potentially worth trillions and capable of delivering sustainable food, energy, jobs and resilience. According to UNCTAD, two thirds of species living in the ocean have yet to be identified, offering the potential for the discovery of new antibiotics, low-carbon foods and other bio-based materials such as plastic substitutes, which alone offer a $10.8 billion market opportunity that can help cut plastic pollution while creating new business avenues.

This potential will only be realised if public policy, capital markets and innovation ecosystems align behind sustainable, scalable blue solutions. For investors, this means exploring ocean-positive opportunities across blue foods, aquaculture tech, renewables, carbon sequestration and sustainable shipping, sectors with measurable environmental impact and compelling growth trajectories.

Ocean’s central message is one of hope. Despite the damage, the ocean is resilient if we give it protection and time, so looking to 2026, we are very confident that oceans and the blue economy will no longer be out of sight out of mind but central to all conversations. The message is simple; investing sustainably and regeneratively in the ocean is investing in the planet — and the time to act is now. Here’s to Davos.