The Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF) has announced that it will double its investments in protecting the oceans and supporting sustainable marine economic activities to $2.5 billion.
The bank has already exceeded its existing oceans funding commitment of $1.25 billion over 2022-2026, with investments including strengthening marine protected areas and supporting small-scale fisheries.
The extra $2.5 billion, which will be rolled out over 2025-2030, will target areas including low-carbon maritime transport, restoration of damaged ocean ecosystems, and sustainable tourism, the bank said.
It comes on top of the $1.3 billion CAF invested in oceans over the last three years.
“This commitment reflects our transformative agenda, that is, to embed the health of the ocean in our development ambition,” CAF executive vice-president Gianpiero Leoncini told a conference on ocean financing in Monaco.
A UN Oceans conference next week in Nice, France, will attempt to rally stronger commitments from countries to protect and invest in oceans, including ratifying a global treaty to protect ocean biodiversity, which most of the 116 countries that signed it have still not done.
Oceans are crucial to trade, food and employment for coastal communities and maintaining global climate systems. But funding to protect these functions has fallen far short.
Investments in ocean health totalled just $10 billion from 2015 to 2019, far below the $175 billion per year needed, the U.N. has said.
CAF’s existing oceans funding includes managing illegal fishing and providing loans to wastewater treatment plants and storm drainage systems to reduce damage from floods.
Oceans also provide a vital buffer against climate change by absorbing around 30% of planet-heating CO2 emissions. But as the oceans heat up, hotter waters are destroying marine ecosystems and threatening the oceans’ ability to absorb CO₂..