Abstract
Sustaining the ocean economy is no longer enough. Moving towards regeneration can reverse ecosystem decline while supporting resilient and equitable long-term prosperity.
This report makes the case for the ocean economy to move beyond sustainability towards regeneration and proposes an operational framework to enable this transformation. The ocean economy generates trillions in annual value and supports billions of livelihoods, yet the systems that sustain it are under increasing strain. Marine ecosystems continue to degrade under pressure from warming seas, pollution and overuse.
While the sustainable blue economy has helped reduce harm, it remains focused on maintaining current conditions, often within already degraded systems, and has not been sufficient to reverse ecosystem decline. A regenerative blue economy goes further. It requires economic activity that actively restores marine ecosystems, strengthens social systems and generates long-term, equitable prosperity and development. It shifts the goal from maintaining the status quo to rebuilding the natural and social capital on which ocean industries and a large part of the global economy depend.
Ocean industries are central to this transformation. The report frames them as a portfolio of traditional, growth and frontier sectors, each playing a distinct role:
- Traditional sectors, such as fisheries, ports, shipping and energy, remain economically dominant but must undergo rapid, managed transitions, to reduce their environmental impacts, internalize costs and redirect investment towards restoration and decarbonization.
- Growth sectors, including offshore renewables, coastal tourism, aquaculture, desalination and water treatment represent the near-term engine of change, with the potential to scale up in ways that reinforce ecosystem health if designed within planetary boundaries.
- Frontier sectors, such as ecosystem restoration, blue biotechnology and ocean data systems, are emerging as the foundation of a regeneration-driven economy, where value creation is directly linked to ecological recovery and knowledge generation.
Together, these sectors point to a future in which economic success is increasingly defined by the ability to replenish, rather than deplete, natural capital.
This report sets out four interdependent system levers and shows how their interactions can help deliver on the ambition of a regenerative blue economy:
- Governance: Integrated ocean governance can help align policies across sectors, manage trade-offs, and address the combined impacts of different ocean use, leading to more coherent planning and better long-term outcomes.
- Finance: Redirecting finance through public investment and innovative commercial instruments can shift incentives away from extractive activities towards regenerative outcomes, while ensuring coastal and Indigenous communities have equitable access to capital.
- Human capacity: Strengthening human capacity can help ensure that local actors have the skills and resources to design and deliver solutions, turning policy into effective action on the ground.
- Technology and AI: Advances in technology and artificial intelligence can improve ocean monitoring, risk management and coordination, making it easier and more affordable to track progress and support better decisions.
Crucially, regeneration does not come from isolated actions, but from how these levers work together to drive change across industries and places.
Social equity is central to the transition. Coastal communities, Indigenous Peoples and small scale ocean users are key stewards of marine ecosystems, and their rights, knowledge and participation need to be reflected in decision making and investment. Without this, efforts to regenerate the ocean risk reinforcing existing inequalities and weakening long-term results.
The report calls for coordinated action across stakeholders:
- Governments can embed regeneration into national ocean strategies and align policy and fiscal systems to deliver on existing commitments – such as the Global Biodiversity Framework, Sustainable Development Goals (particularly SDG 14) and sectoral targets like the International Maritime Organization’s decarbonization agenda – while reducing fragmentation and accelerating progress.
- Investors and financial institutions can protect their investments from ocean-related risks by integrating a regenerative approach into decision-making, redirecting capital flows and developing innovative financing mechanisms.
- Ocean industries can preserve and enhance their long-term value by redesigning business models towards net-positive ecological and social outcomes.
- Civil society, philanthropy and research institutions play a critical role in building capacity, advancing knowledge and enabling coordination across actors and scales.
For all groups, the priority is to move from fragmented, project-based approaches to integrated, place-based strategies operating at seascape scale.
A regenerative blue economy offers a pathway in which ocean industries, ecosystems and communities reinforce one another. The foundations for this transition already exist, but to expand and accelerate it requires urgency, coordination and systemic alignment. The future of the ocean economy will be defined not by how much it extracts, but by how effectively it regenerates and creates value from the systems that sustain it.