Blue innovation: turning risks into opportunities

Climate change, plastic pollution and ecosystem destruction—the ocean faces many risks. Homes, businesses and investments are threatened by extreme weather, exposure to toxic chemicals and loss of resources.

Innovation in ocean-based sectors can provide solutions to these problems, turning risks into opportunities. Indeed, “blue innovation” is one of the main levers of change identified by the World Ocean Initiative. Our coverage identifies the barriers that are holding back innovations and assesses the actions needed to get them to market.

One recent article looks at wave and tidal renewable energy technologies >> (https://bit.ly/2tLfUHA), which lag far behind offshore wind, and considers how best to develop the sector. A recent guest blog considers the technological innovations needed to improve air quality at ports, as well as the policies and investment needed to support implementation >> https://bit.ly/37bLBHN

More controversially, deep-sea mining >> () promises to provide the metals needed to build millions of electric cars at a lower environmental cost than land-based mining. Geoengineering solutions such as ocean iron fertilisation are attracting renewed interest as desperation grows about the lack of progress in UN climate talks. We consider the pros and cons >> https://bit.ly/2UBcl1F

Blue innovation will be a key theme of the World Ocean Summit in Tokyo, Japan, on March 9th-10th.