Blue Hour for Responsible Finance?

For several years, the ocean has gradually become a central topic in major international discussions related to the environment, climate, biodiversity, and sustainable development. As a vital life support system and essential climate regulator, it plays a systemic role in the balance of ecosystems and the resilience of human societies. However, from the perspective of financial markets, while terrestrial issues, particularly forests, are gaining increasing awareness, the ocean remains largely a blind spot. Too vast, too technical, and often perceived as peripheral or out of reach, it remains excluded from major sustainable investment mechanisms.

The United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC), co-organized by France and Costa Rica from June 9 to 13, 2025, in Nice, offers a unique opportunity to reposition these issues at the heart of the international agenda—and to question the role that finance can play in this context.

At Mirova, we believe it is time to better integrate the ocean into investment universes. Rather than a homogeneous investment sector, the ocean represents, above all, a space of convergence for major contemporary challenges: carbon sinks, biodiversity hotspots, a source of income for millions of people, and a theater of increasing geopolitical tensions. It is permeated by multiple issues that responsible investors are already addressing, though not always explicitly linked to the oceans. Commitments to combat plastic pollution, climate strategies that incorporate coastal adaptation, and social investments in support of coastal communities: the levers exist but remain partial and fragmented. Because oceanic challenges go beyond just market tools, Mirova structures its actions around three complementary levers: investment and engagement to direct capital toward economic models aligned with marine ecosystem preservation; applied research through the Mirova Research Center; and support for public interest initiatives via Mirova Foundation. This integrated approach aims to combine financial action, knowledge production, and support for local solutions in a framework of systemic transformation. 

This document aims to explore how sustainable finance can better integrate oceanic challenges. How can we structure a more coherent and comprehensive response from sustainable finance to oceanic issues? What tools already exist? What needs to be created, strengthened, or articulated differently to scale up? For Mirova, it is not about artificially isolating the ocean within a new silo but rather promoting a holistic approach that can aggregate converging actions in service of a global common good and provide a clear conceptual framework for investors.

We believe that responsible investors have a specific role to play in this dynamic. Not in isolation, but in support of public policies, scientific research, and collective initiatives that have been engaged for several years, particularly by civil society. This mobilization is all the more urgent as the threats facing the ocean intensify, even as the tools to counter them are still emerging. It is in this perspective that we present here a critical assessment and open reflection on the role of investors in structuring a responsible blue economy.