Terrasse

On October 11th, I participated in the Special Policy Study (SPS) meeting of the Open Forum for the CCICED 2024 Annual General Meeting, held at Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing. (2024年10月11日，我在北京钓鱼台国宾馆参加了国合会2024年会主题论坛，一如既往为可持续蓝色经济提出建议，并代表国际团队为中国出谋划策）。

Here is my intervention.

I speak on behalf of the global WWF ocean team. We attempt to provide an overall solution for a sustainable blue economy.

WWF defined the first concept of SBE in 2015. I would spell out our definition here, very easy to remember, that’s sustainable, blue, and economy:
Sustainable means that the economy should provide social and economic benefits for current and future generations;
Blue means that the activities should restore, protect, and maintain diverse, productive, and resilient marine ecosystems;
Economy refers to the economy based on clean technologies, renewable energy, and circular material flows.

Specifically, I would mention, although deep-sea mining is a new sector of the marine industry, it does not meet these criteria. Due to the large knowledge gaps, we recommend establishing a moratorium until we can ensure a sufficient scientific basis to make decisions, and to take a precautionary and holistic approach. This is the same attitude as what Professor Bao Rui just explained in the last session.

In 2015, we began to assess the assets and flows of the monetary value provided by the ocean. It’s like inventories and balance sheets for the ecosystem services. In the report of Reviving the Ocean Economy, WWF evaluated the assets of the global ocean as 24 trillion USD, and annually it yields production worth 2.5 trillion USD. That is a 10% year-over-year return, more profitable than most investments. Applying the same methodology, we assessed the ocean in China as 54 trillion CNY. Now, we are in the process of ocean accounting in the Guangdong-HK-Macau Greater Bay Area. We hope this could be a baseline for future SBE development in this vital area. 

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Different sectors have their ways of being engaged in the SBE.
 
For financial institutions, I would recommend Sustainable Blue Economy Finance Principles launched in 2018 by WWF and other collaborative organizations, now hosted by UNEP. This is the first global framework to deliver guidance to both the private and public sector finance onto ways towards a sustainable blue economy. We see this as a simple entry point for financial institutions. By joining the voluntary initiative, they will have access to a global community of practice, peer-to-peer learning, blue finance resources, and a knowledge base. Till now, five Chinese financial institutions have signed and we encourage more to join in.

It is important to seek linkages and alignment with these Principles and guidance in emerging frameworks that deliver Sustainable Blue Economy – for example, taxonomies and Taskforce for Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD). TNFD has been repeatedly mentioned and I trust that most of you are aware of its importance. I will not explain more of it. We congratulate Ms. Bai Yuwen’s team on the blue taxonomy in Yantai. Recently, WWF has also finished a study of Blue Taxonomy for China. (during its early development we received much support from Patrick Yeung the session facilitator). This comprehensive taxonomy entails 8 ocean-related sectors, from fishery to marine engineering. For each specific industrial sector, it explains the definition, climate change performance, potential risks, managing policies, etc. As it is developed using China standards, guidance, and policies, they are ready to be adapted to different users in China. We will explore its application among policy banks, finance regulatory departments, investors, etc., as well as their local counterparts. 
 
Finally, I would take fishery as an example of transforming a traditional sector into SBE. WWF acknowledges China’s acceptance of the WTO fishery subsidy agreement and further encourages China to adopt the Agreement of Port State Measures (PSMA) against IUU fishery. We advocate for applying new technology such as AI-powered electronic monitoring in fishery vessels for better management and law reinforcement. This in turn will derisk any financial institutions targeted at this sector – not least in terms of supply and reputational risks.

It should be acknowledged that all we have mentioned here not only contributes to the blue transition but also aligns and contributes to the Kunming Montréal Global Biodiversity Framework, the collective agenda of the human being.

This is definitely one of the most wonderful Expos and sessions I have ever attended featuring the green transformation. Thanks to the coordination of my colleagues in Hong Kong, I participated in a panel discussion featuring “Unlocking the Potential of a Sustainable Blue Economy” (SBE) in Sustainable Business Forum (“ReThink”), on Sept. 13th in Hong Kong Convention Centre.

Mr. Alistair Monument, our conservation director of Asia Pacific acted as the moderator. I took three questions during the panel and clearly expressed our advocacies and some of my thinking toward this idea.

To the first question, I introduced two of our on-going work, ocean accounting in the Greater Bay Area and the China Blue Taxonomy. The former should be finalized next month. I introduced the latter as 8 sectors for SBE, 5 aspect for each industrial sector, and 3 years to develop and review. I have been talking about this for many times in many occasions.

For the second question on what should we do to fill the gap of SBE, I mentioned three ways.
Awareness raising. For the first time, I summarize the core value of SBE into the three key words – S-B-E. Sustainable, or the profit in a long-term investment, lies in the welfare of local community and human benefits in a whole. Blue represents positive impact on ocean ecosystem, at least not negative. Economy recognizes the necessity for development, but should take into account of renewable energy of green criteria.
Top down. As many financial institutes in mainland China are state owned, it is crucial to convince the policy makers and supervisory departments to issue favorable policies or standards, even they might be voluntary. Some banking staff may already be ready to innovate and transform. Such policies and guidance will enable that once they want to make any change, their supervisors won’t say no.
Bottom up. There is a mismatch between conservationists like us and investors. We conservationists are the ones that know nature, but most of us are just unable to translate our work to messages that investors can understand. Some investors already realized the need of sustainability, but their expertise on revenue models or balance sheets does not help. So we are trying to develop tools to fill in the gap, one example is the sustainable fishery inventory we are developing.

The third question was about the opportunities that Hong Kong could make use of for developing SBE. I saw HK’s strength as the combination of a well-established marine industry, full elements of finance (trading house and free markets), and knowledgeable investors. Therefore, HK could be a laboratory for SBE. When we develop standards or mechanisms, we may TestFlight here. And the market may tell us what works and what not.

I was quite encouraged, that after our session, several professional audience approached me and told me that what I said was especially helpful. And of course, I do hope some of the audience would appreciate our efforts and support us in the future, either by following our advocacies or fund us for future development of SBE.

The main pity was that our panel is disastrously gender unbalanced, as all five on the stage were male. Fortunately, the opening remarks and most keynote speeches were made by female speakers.

(2024) Net Zero & Nature Positive Theatre (Keynote)