Innovative financing mechanism for blue economy projects

Abstract

Investments flowing into blue economy projects are estimated to be much lesser than the requirements, for achieving the targets set out in the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Blue economy projects are typically financed through conventional means of public and development finance. However, the nature and characteristics of blue economy projects transcend the need to extend beyond the conventional financing options of multilateral/bilateral aid. The objective of this article is to assess if the existing blue economy initiatives are adequate to the sectoral investment needs and to develop contours of a framework that could accelerate the blue economy investments. The research finds that the current initiatives such as blue bonds are relatively small and accelerating investments requires access to additional financing instruments and a transformative change in participating stakeholders. Using a Theory of Change approach, contours of a framework that pools in low-cost funds from a diverse set of investors to be deployed for either public sector promoted large impact projects or individual blue economy projects through market-based instruments are suggested. The findings contribute to the ongoing debate on how to improve the financial capability of various blue economy stakeholders and enable them to configure more sustainable financing mechanisms.