Denmark-based Velux Foundation has allocated $1 million to a newly launched programme aimed at developing metrics to support financial institutions in measuring their impacts and dependencies on oceans, Carbon Pulse has learned.
The Making Oceans Count II (MOC2) initiative was launched on Tuesday by non-profit Green Digital Finance Alliance (GDFA), Norwegian tech foundation HubOcean, and the Copenhagen Business School (CBS), with funds from the non-profit Velux Foundation, set up by the founder of the Danish company Velux.
“The project Making Oceans Count II is working to address an important question – how do we ensure that progress within the blue economy does not come at the expense of our marine environment?” Charlotte Mogensen, programme director at Velux Foundation, told Carbon Pulse.
“Our goal is to connect financial industry stakeholders to the heart of ocean data, enabling them to align investments with the protection of marine ecosystems, said Gerrit Sindermann, executive director of GDFA.
“This consortium effort is not merely an advancement for the financial sector, but a collective leap towards global marine preservation,” said Sindermann.
MOC2 will build on the achievements of its predecessor, Making Oceans Count, which was established in Jan. 2021 by the three-strong consortium of organisations along with WWF Denmark.
Through harnessing Hub Ocean’s platform to develop open collaborative tools, the 18-month programme seeks to contribute to expanding the use of asset-level information for ocean activities, and unlock scientific marine and environmental data.
“Innovative data platforms can play a critical role in supporting sustainable investments,” Martin Moen, Hub Ocean’s CFO and finance lead, told Carbon Pulse. Velux is contributing $1 mln to the programme, he said.
“Assessing ocean-related impacts is extremely challenging. Satellite imagery and other technologies used to analyse land-related impacts cannot be applied to the ocean ecosystem. It’s just a blue carpet, you can’t see below. You have a much bigger job to do to get the science data, and this huge data gap needs to be addressed.”
Additional financing is expected as the programme gains traction.
HIGH EXPOSURE
While initially focusing on metrics related to the shipping industry, MOC2 will subsequently broaden its scope to include other sectors, such as offshore renewable energy.
The initiative will leverage extensive geolocated datasets, including the Automatic Identification System (AIS) vessel tracking system and the World Database on Protected Areas. It will overlay information on physical assets with observational or estimated data on their biodiversity impacts.
“In the first phase, we’ll gather data on ships to see where they move, how much time they spend in a given area, and what kind of pressure they exert on the surrounding ecosystem,” Moen said.
“We will examine multiple indicators – including invasive species, and noise and air pollution levels – to shape better metrics. Then, we will tie these indicators to the financial players and investors that need data to investigate their impacts on oceans.”
According to a report published by the MOC consortium last year, Nordic pension funds are exposed up to 40% to oceans, with indirect impacts across the value chain – such as ship-building – accounting for around 30% of the portfolio.
The programme has already engaged with the Taskforce on Nature-Related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) in an attempt to bolster cooperation and support the integration of ocean-related impacts in biodiversity reporting, Moen said. However, the talks are in the early stages.
“The ocean space is lagging behind. We’ve been quite openly told that they haven’t got there yet,” Moen said.
In the last few months, attention has grown around water-based credits, with several initiatives launched by different companies. However, data remains a key barrier to scaling the market.
By Sergio Colombo – sergio@carbon-pulse.com
** Click here to sign up to our twice-weekly biodiversity newsletter **
