Panel
S.O.S. - Save Our Seas: Protecting the Future of Our Oceans | Asia Summit 2024
- France is scheduled to host the third UN Oceans Conference in June of the following year to discuss mobilizing resources for ocean conservation.
- Conservation International aims to increase ocean protection coverage from 9 million square kilometers to 30% of the global ocean area (30 by 30 goal), projecting this will stimulate economic growth and food security by treating protected areas as infrastructure.
- The Great Barrier Reef Foundation and McLaren Racing plan to achieve two 10x improvements in coral restoration efficiency: reducing the cost per coral from $10–$15 to $1 and increasing annual output from 100,000 to 1 million coral babies per sporting season, with results expected to scale globally and potentially deploy to Singapore.
- OceanX intends to generate a full genome sequencing and DNA fingerprint database for critical species in Southeast Asian waters to aid population monitoring, with numerous biodiversity announcements anticipated over the coming years.
- The Blue Halo initiative plans to deploy $60 million in capital via the Green Climate Fund to establish an investment ecosystem for small and medium enterprises in Indonesia's West Coast fisheries, expecting this foundational work to attract larger capital influxes later.
- Investors and the private sector are urged to accept potential short-term profit reductions ("haircuts") to facilitate long-term sustainable management, as current investment equations for blue carbon and biodiversity remain unstable.
- Conservation efforts face risks related to funding gaps, with a stated urgency for catalytic investment to move beyond prototype stages, and challenges in building capacity within NGOs regarding financing and economic development.
- A new workforce pipeline is expected to be cultivated through OceanX education initiatives targeting undergraduate, early career, and K-12 students in data science, marine engineering, and storytelling to mitigate talent shortages.
- Engineering methodologies from McLaren are expected to be applied to biological scenarios during Formula One summer breaks to solve coral restoration challenges, potentially generating a broad series of papers and creative innovations.
- The convergence of government, NGOs, and the private sector is viewed as essential for scaling, relying on values alignment and "enlightened self-interest" to create frictionless blended finance models that treat oceans as critical economic infrastructure.