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Insurers must promote the blue economy
Insurance firms have a wide role to play in bringing climate and economic imperatives into closer alignment, adapting the tools at their disposal to safeguard both ocean health and the blue economy as a sustainable, interdependent ecosystem.
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Fishermen unload their catch on July 15, 2024, at the Nizam Zachman Fishing Port in Penjaringan, North Jakarta. (Antara/Erlangga Bregas Prakoso)
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overing more than 70 percent of Earth’s surface, the ocean is indispensable for global health, climate regulation and crucially, economic stability. It absorbs around 30 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and hosts diverse ecosystems that sustain countless livelihoods.
Pursuing a sustainable blue economy thus creates an opportunity to harmonize ocean conservation with economic growth in critical sectors like fisheries, tourism and renewable energy.
Achieving this requires striking a delicate balance between using the ocean’s resources and respecting its natural limits, especially amid the escalating climate crisis.
Degradation caused by human activities poses significant ecological and economic risks. Rising sea levels, increasingly intense storms and coastal erosion threaten to damage infrastructure and devastate communities. Biodiversity loss and ocean warming and acidification disrupt marine ecosystems, hinder carbon sequestration and oxygen production as well as diminish fisheries and the tourism industry.
More than ever, a sustainable approach to ocean management is needed to safeguard economic interests and marine health.
In this context, insurance companies have both the responsibility and the tools to support clients involved in blue-economy activities, which are becoming less insurable as ocean health deteriorates.
Extreme weather events, particularly increased flooding, result in higher claims and can even make it prohibitively expensive to cover certain assets. Exacerbating this trend is the destruction of marine ecosystems, which weakens natural coastal protection.
