I am previleged to speak in the panel discussion of “Scaling Sustainable Blue Solutions” in the ReThink, HK’s flagship event for sustainability.
I summarized WWF’s role in driving the evolution of Sustainable Blue Economy, and introduced several knowledge products for both public and private sectors.
Here is what I have said.
Self-introduction
I have been with WWF-China for 17 years well following the global trend of environment movement. I started doing communication in 2009. After that, I conserved migratory birds and then took the lead of the wetland programme, on site conservation at the beginning, then policy advocacy on wetland management and later planning. In 2022, I took up the ocean programme and revamped the team into sustainable blue economy, focusing not only on traditional issues like fishery, but also in depth on industry engagement and blue finance.
I believe this is the trend of global conservation. The iconic animals can raise people’s awareness, but only through changing the economy can we really conserve the ocean.
To start us off, could you briefly introduce the evolution of “sustainable blue economy”? Last year when you were in the ReThink, you mentioned a China version blue taxonomy, how well is it going now in the mainland China context?
You may have heard several terms related to SBE, sometimes confusing. I would briefly introduce the history, so that you could see the stages in the evolution to understand it.
Starting from about 2010, the world began to realize that the protection of nature should involve the economic sector and green finance began to emerge. And ocean was of no exception.
The first step is to understand the benefits people gain from ocean. In 2015, in the report of Reviving the Ocean Economy, WWF evaluated the global ocean assets as 24 trillion USD, and annually it yields production worth 2.5 trillion USD, ranking as the 7th largest economy in the world. That is a 10% year-over-year return, more profitable than most investments.
With these figures, in 2018, WWF gave this new economy a clear definition, that is S-B-E. I would emphasis that it is different from blue economy. In some cases, the blue economy can refer to any non-conventional marine economy. Somebody may call deep seabed mining as a blue economy since it’s about high technology, but it is on the opposite of SBE. 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 and productive marine ecosystems. Economy refers to the economy based on clean technologies, renewable energy, and circular material flows.
To promote it, WWF, together with like-minded organizations like the European Investment Bank, declared the Sustainable Blue Economy Finance Principles. The fourteen principles were later hosted by UNEP, becoming the UNEP Finance Initiative in 2019. This is the first global framework to deliver guidance to both the private and public sector finance onto ways towards a sustainable blue economy.
Later, many studies on the investments, like WWF Sustainable Bank reports are launched, and methodologies supporting the implementation you may have heard are developed, like TNFD.
Now you see the history of SBE. Now we are in the process of providing guidance for implementation.
As I have introduced in the ReThink event last year, based on the existing policies and standards in mainland China, applying the principles WWF has been advocating, we developed a blue taxonomy, including about 150 industrial sectors. This is a mainland China-customized instrument for financial institutions and their regulators.
Thanks to this blue taxonomy, we not only made ourselves clear on what we can recommend, but also demonstrated our expertise. Thus, we got the privelege to talk to the policy makers and offered our recommendations. As a result, in the latest 2025 version of Category of Green Bond Endorsed Projects issued by the People’s Bank of China and other administrations, many of our suggestions are adopted and become part of a market policy. This category will come to effect next month.
This is a big step for China to develop its SBE.
Yimo, you just mentioned taxonomy as an instrument for SBE, what are new trend? What are your next plans and how does it relate to HK?
I just mentioned the taxonomy as an instrument for financial institutions and regulators. Now I would like to introduce two recent milestones, one for governments and one for industries. They are both related to HK.
Here on the screen is a cross boundary study that two WWF offices, Hong Kong and Mainland China, carried out together.
Based on the landscape and seascape types, we calculated the GEP, gross environment production from the ecosystem service in the GBA. We found out that, while less than half of the total area is covered by ocean, ocean provides 73% of the GEP.
The majority of the value results from its regulatory services, e.g. climate change mitigation like carbon sequestration, or coastal line protection.
As you can see, these are all public services. We believe this study can be a good reference for MSP, for high-level guidance on governmental budgeting, and for EIAs cases, environment impact assessment, etc.
Another milestone is a report for industries, led by our US office, with contribution from WWF global network. Here on the screen shows the structure of the study.
We adopted the SBTN’s action framework, AR3T, as an organizing principle, namely avoid future (negative) impacts, reduce unavoidable (negative) impacts, restore and regenerate ecosystems, and transform the broader social and economic systems in which companies operate.
We mapped sector-specific actions for offshore wind, coastal and marine tourism, shipping, and seafood.
Taking seafood as an example, we introduced six categories of risks, from seabed disturbance to wild population impacts, and list our recommendations in general.
To introduce action pathways, we then break the sector down to aquaculture and wild catch, and explain details on risk management and actions.
If you happen to be in these industries or would invest in them, please make sure to read it.
One last message: I would let our audience be aware that WWF global team is working on a SBE guidance for central banks. We plan to launch it later this year.
Stay tuned.
One sentence respond to highlight key narrative and wrap up
For public sector, HK has the advantage in piloting complex issues, like seafood traceability, which requires all elements, including supply chain, technology, market, investment, etc. They are all available in just one city. NGOs should be the catalyst among different sectors. We are ready to support.
I believe that there are more reps from private sectors among the audience. If you are interested in understanding more the relationship between your business and ocean, please approach my colleague Lydia and me.
Together, let’s contribute to a nature positive ocean.