Fish farming will not enter the EU’s list of sustainable investment activities for at least two to three years, an executive at non-profit think-tank Planet Tracker has predicted.
However, farming fish, crustaceans and aquatic plants, “probably” will enter the EU Taxonomy “at some point”, François Mosnier, head of oceans programmes at Planet Tracker said.
The technical screening criteria for aquaculture would need to be “really specific” as mainstream practices in the sector tend to be environmentally harmful, he told Carbon Pulse.
Regenerative aquaculture – farming seafood with practices beneficial for biodiversity and climate – is “needed to feed the planet” while being “some of the cheapest form of blue protein”, Mosnier said.
“If you farm mussels, clams, and oysters, you can sequester carbon, filter water, create habitats for other species,” Mosnier said.
The aquaculture sector needs clearer definitions on which activities are good for the environment, he said. In May, Planet Tracker said the aquaculture industry would be unable to meet demand by 2050 unless it became regenerative, in report Avoiding Aquafailure.
The EU Taxonomy is closely watched by investors and regulators worldwide for its potential to impact investment decisions by classifying economy activities as sustainable.
The EU Commission published a ‘delegated act’ to extend its taxonomy beyond the existing climate mitigation and adaptation objectives, to cover biodiversity, the circular economy, water, and pollution in June. The act has been approved in principle and, following scrutiny from the European Parliament and Council, is expected to apply from January 2024.
Agriculture and aquaculture have remained absent from the proposals.
This week, UN organisations and the International Capital Market Association launched a set of voluntary principles to guide market participants for bond instruments in an effort to increase biodiversity and climate-focused investment in marine projects.
The report excluded non-renewable extractive activities such as deep sea mining from blue bond investments. This explicit prohibition was “very helpful” for showing investors how such practices are unsustainable, Mosnier said.
More investment in oceans is needed, he said. Since the ocean-related UN Sustainable Development Goal was announced in 2015, “not only has no progress been made” against its targets “but we have regressed, despite all the noise on the sustainable blue economy”, he said.
Governments should reallocate capital from subsidies harmful to marine life to supporting it, he said.
“For oceans, we need at least $100 billion a year. With just [redirecting] harmful fishery subsidies that’s already a third down. So in theory, it’s not easy but it can be done.”
By Thomas Cox – t.cox@carbon-pulse.com
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