Why, then, are the public and private sectors seemingly turning a blind eye to what the UN Environment Programme describes as a global economy worth US$1.5 trillion, with 31 million jobs at risk from negative impacts on ocean-linked sectors?
Established in 2015, the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14, “Life Below Water”, aims to conserve and sustainably use ocean resources and development. With just six years remaining to meet this goal, the yearly funding required to do so has unfortunately continued to fall short, with UN under-secretary-general Liu Zhenmin estimating a gap of around US$149.0 billion ($196.8 billion) per year in 2020.
In 2022, the UN reported that this number had swelled to some US$175 billion, while a World Economic Forum white paper revealed that just under US$10 billion was invested in the field between 2015 and 2019.
