The Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO has joined ORRAA as an institutional partner to help mobilise at least $500 million in ocean and coastal natural capital by 2030.
The alliance targets financial, insurance, and risk-modelling barriers that have constrained investment in ocean resilience, particularly in climate-vulnerable coastal regions.
The partnership strengthens the science policy finance pipeline underpinning SDG 14 and the UN Decade of Ocean Science, with direct implications for insurers, investors, and governments exposed to coastal risk.
Paris and Global Coastal Regions
The Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO has formally joined the Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance, aligning one of the world’s leading ocean science bodies with a finance-led effort to close the investment gap in coastal resilience and ocean protection.
Announced in October 2025, the partnership positions IOC as an institutional partner within ORRAA, a multi stakeholder alliance working to channel large scale private and public capital into ocean and coastal solutions. The move reflects a growing recognition that climate resilience along coastlines will not be achieved through science or policy alone, but through financial structures capable of pricing, managing, and reducing ocean risk.
Scaling Investment Where Risk Is Rising
Coastal regions face some of the fastest growing climate risks globally, from sea level rise and intensifying storms to ecosystem degradation that undermines fisheries, tourism, and local livelihoods. Yet ocean finance remains a small fraction of global climate investment flows.
Structural barriers have played a decisive role. Fragmented governance, weak or inconsistent risk data, and limited track records for investable projects have deterred insurers, lenders, and institutional investors. ORRAA was created to address precisely these gaps by developing financial and insurance products that reduce ocean risk and make coastal resilience investable at scale.
By joining the alliance, IOC brings scientific authority and global policy reach to an initiative explicitly designed to translate ocean science into financial decision-making.
ORRAA’s Mandate and Market Signal
ORRAA’s stated objective is to catalyse at least $500 million in investment into coastal and ocean natural capital by 2030, while strengthening resilience for 250 million people living in climate-vulnerable coastal areas. Its membership spans governments, insurers, asset owners, development institutions, non-profits, and intergovernmental organisations.
For capital markets, the alliance represents a signal that ocean risk is moving from the periphery of ESG discussions into the core of climate and financial risk management. Coastal flooding, ecosystem loss, and disrupted marine economies increasingly translate into sovereign risk, insurance losses, and supply-chain instability.
Science Meets Finance
IOC’s contribution to ORRAA centres on bridging science, policy, and finance. The commission coordinates global ocean observation systems, risk assessments, and climate-ocean research that underpin evidence based decision making.
Through ORRAA, this expertise will support the development of tools that connect ocean science with risk analytics and blended finance structures. The focus is particularly acute in Small Island Developing States and low-lying coastal regions, where exposure to climate hazards is high and fiscal capacity is limited.
The collaboration also reinforces IOC led initiatives including the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, the Ocean Decade Collaborative Centre for the Ocean Climate Nexus, and the Tsunami Ready Recognition Programme. Together, these frameworks provide the data, governance, and early-warning systems needed to support investable resilience strategies.
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Nature-Based Solutions as Financial Assets
Projects supported through ORRAA include mangrove restoration, coral reef protection, and blue carbon initiatives. These nature based solutions have demonstrated capacity to reduce coastal erosion, buffer storm surges, store carbon, and protect biodiversity, while also supporting fisheries and tourism economies.
From a financial perspective, such projects increasingly function as risk-reduction assets. By lowering disaster losses and stabilising ecosystems, they can improve the risk profiles of coastal infrastructure, insurance portfolios, and sovereign balance sheets.
What Executives and Investors Should Take Away
For C-suite leaders, insurers, and investors, the IOC ORRAA partnership highlights a shift in how ocean risk is being framed. Coastal resilience is no longer only an environmental concern. It is a material financial and governance issue with direct implications for underwriting, asset allocation, and public finance.
As climate disclosure regimes tighten and physical risk modelling becomes more granular, ocean risk will increasingly influence capital costs and investment decisions. The integration of scientific credibility with financial innovation is likely to accelerate this trend.
Global Significance
The alliance underscores a broader recalibration of climate finance priorities. While mitigation remains critical, adaptation and resilience in ocean and coastal systems are emerging as investable, policy backed themes. By aligning UNESCO’s ocean science leadership with ORRAA’s financial architecture, the partnership strengthens the case for scaling ocean finance as a pillar of global climate and ESG strategy.
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