Welcome to our June Newsletter!
World Oceans Week Continues to Grow:
Since the first UN Ocean Conference in NYC in 2017, The Explorers Club has been hosting a "World Oceans Week" alongside each year’s World Oceans Day, which is celebrated on
June 8th at the United Nations. At this year’s kick-off event, leadership from four other World Ocean Weeks – Italy, Mexico, Canada and Washington DC (Capitol Hill Ocean Week) –
virtually joined The Explorers Club at its headquarters to launch the week together. Please let us know if there are other World Ocean Weeks that should be included next year, or
where it might make sense to start one!
World Oceans Day at the United Nations:
In the past few years World Oceans Day has become a global phenomenon. Last year the event had a social media reach of 67+ million and over 100,000 people viewed the program.
Congratulations to Lea D’Auriol and her team at Oceanic Global and to Francois Bailet and his team at DOALOS for curating another superb experience this year. For those who missed
it, you can see the recording here. Of special note: the Blue Economy panel hosted by Shyla Raghav of
Time Magazine and featuring Barkha Mossaë of IUCN, Great Blue Wall, Karen Sack of ORRAA and Brett Jenks of RARE (skip to 2:20:00 for this specific
panel discussion). It’s a broad reaching and thoughtful engagement on an ever more timely
topic.
Other Highlights From the Week:
In addition to attending the UN World Oceans Day session, Investable Oceans co-hosted several blue economy sessions, including “Investing in Blue Foods: Addressing the Missing
Middle“ with Aqua-Spark and TIFS,
and “Frontiers in Blue Data: Accelerating Innovation and Stewardship through Collaboration“, with MITRE. We also
enjoyed helping Xiao Recio-Blanco and Builders Initiative host a gathering for stakeholders working
on philanthropic and impact investment initiatives in the Bahamas, which have been rapidly growing over the past several years – you can check out
this article
from the Nassau Guardian to learn more about the event. A huge thank you to our partners and everyone who engaged in these events with us the other week!
More Ocean Conferences:
Investable Oceans participated in the OCEANOVATION Festival this week, an innovative gathering of solutions
oriented entrepreneurs, investors and industry experts in its second year at The Hague. Ted moderated a panel on Marine Carbon Dioxide Removal (mCDR) and joined a panel on
exploring the connections between space and ocean investing – two topics that we believe will be on the docket for years to come. An interesting observation from the mCDR
discussion: panelists noted the similarities in investing in seemingly very different solutions based on biotic and abiotic approaches.
We’re also moderating the closing panel at OceanFest @StartUpFest in Montreal on July 11th – you can learn more about this exciting event
here. Last, we’re already working on a number of events for
Climate Week NYC (Sept 23rd–30th). Please let us know if you plan on being in town then and we’ll do
our best to keep you posted on relevant events.
Exciting Ocean Developments:
This week, the EU Environment Council
approved the Nature Restoration Law which aims to restore at least
20% of the EU's land and seas, with specific targets including reversing the decline of pollinators and restoring 25,000 kilometers of rivers to free-flowing conditions. The
landmark legislation is a beacon of hope for global biodiversity/marine conservation and is a boon to many sources of natural capital, including many in the blue economy.
This milestone achievement is one of many exciting developments that have taken place in the ocean landscape over the last couple of years, including the BBNJ and the Global
Plastics Treaty. Alfredo Giron Nava of the World Economic Forum does a great job highlighting this increasing momentum in a recent
LinkedIn post
about the newly-launched “Bring it All Together for the Ocean” movement.
As always, we thank you for your support!
The Investable Oceans Team
