Ocean Panel’s paper on ocean employment highlights the challenges and opportunities for employment and economic growth in the transition to a sustainable blue economy.
The High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy (Ocean Panel), a global initiative of leaders from 18 countries, has published a ‘blue paper’ in partnership with its secretariat the World Resources Institute (WRI). The paper analyses the wealth of untapped employment opportunities available in the transition towards a sustainable ocean economy over the next 25 years.
The 126-page report, which is aimed at decision-makers, industry leaders and other stakeholders, looks at the challenges that have to be overcome in order to achieve a just transition for people working in and around the ocean economy. It also examines opportunities for action, including through the deployment of funding mechanisms such as green and blue bonds and impact investing.
The report found that the formal ocean economy employs at least 133 million people globally. With the right support in place that figure could grow by 51 million by 2050 to 184 million, an increase of 1.5% per year from a 2019 baseline. The report’s authors also acknowledge that the number of people employed by the ocean economy is likely to be larger still, given data gaps in subsistence and informal employment in sectors such as tourism and aquaculture and fishing.
More focus needed
Speaking to Impact Investor, Tom Pickerell, global director of the ocean programme at the WRI who also heads up the secretariat for the Ocean Panel, said that investment in the ocean economy has lagged investment elsewhere and that this needed to change.
“When it comes to the ocean economy, I think as terrestrial beings, we have not given it enough focus. It has been a case of ‘out of sight, out of mind’,” he said, explaining that only 0.1% of funding channelled to the UN’s SDGs goes to SDG14- Life below water.
“Investment is absolutely critical for so many different reasons, not least that over three billion people rely on blue foods for their survival. In terms of jobs, our report also found that there are possibly more than 250 million people, including informal and subsistence workers, in the ocean economy but we need better data.”
The report was commissioned in response to one of 14 outcomes outlined in the Ocean Panel’s strategic roadmap which has set a date of 2030 to transition towards a sustainable ocean economy.
“Part of our work is to help them to make progress. This employment report is one of those pieces of work,” said Pickerell.
Workforce change
The report identifies seven key drivers of workforce change such as climate change, which the authors say will significantly affect employment in ocean economy sectors through changes to the abundance and distribution of fish stocks, increasing sea-level rise, the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events and algal blooms, and investment in offshore wind, tidal and solar energy projects.
“There are climate-related biochemical reasons for investing in oceans and the ocean workforce”, said Pickerell, highlighting that oceans are responsible for 50% of oxygen produced on the Earth.
“It is also the biggest carbon sink in the world. So, we need to actively be managing the ocean and see it as an ally in the fight against climate change. Ocean-based climate solutions such as wind power, blue foods or green carbon dioxide removal can contribute to about 30% of the emissions gap needed to maintain us on that 1.5C trajectory,” he said, referring to the Paris Agreement goal to limit global temperature rise.
“And that’s just the existing technology,” he added.
Other drivers include changing demand for ocean-based goods and services, which could significantly affect jobs in certain industries, and the emergence of sectors at the forefront of new industries, which are likely to see increased levels of employment.
Challenges and untapped potential
The report highlights several challenges to equitable and inclusive job creation in the ocean economy. These include severe skills gaps in emerging ocean sectors like marine renewable energy and digital technologies, limited access to training in developing countries – especially in the Global South -and social equity and protection deficits faced by vulnerable communities, informal workers, and small-scale operators at high risk of exclusion as the ocean economy evolves.
“Ocean literacy is particularly important because that’s one of the reasons leading us to having such poor funding. People simply don’t understand the ocean,” said Pickerell.
The report’s authors also outline the roles and responsibilities of different stakeholders in supporting a just transition and development, and provides actionable recommendations for creating an equitable, inclusive and resilient workforce.
“There’s a massive untapped economic potential in the ocean sectors aligned with sustainability, including renewable energy, sustainable aquaculture, green ports and blue biotechnology. One of the problems is that we lack workforce skills. The infrastructure is also lacking and there’s an absence of equity-orientated programmes to enable us to achieve this,” said Pickerell, who explained that the future workforce needed to be climate smart, tech ready and inclusive.
“All that requires investment,” he added.
Opportunities for action
One of the report’s mid to long-term opportunities for action is the promotion of sustainable financing and entrepreneurship through the development of innovative financial mechanisms such as blue bonds and impact investments to fund sustainable employment initiatives, and the empowerment of coastal entrepreneurs, especially women and youth, to create businesses in the blue economy.
Pickerell said that in his view there are three main channels for mobilising and aligning finance.
“There’s direct climate development finance that needs to be directed towards ocean workforce transitions and then there are the banks and private investors, who have a role to play in funding inclusive training, infrastructure and job creation in the coastal regions of the world, particularly in the Global South,” he said, adding that the third channel was through public funding.
“That would derisk blue workforce programmes that can actually provide support for underserved populations,” he added.
