Our World Ocean Summit Virtual Week concluded successfully last week. We welcomed more than 8,500 registered participants and more than 6,000 active users on our virtual platform during the week. Here I summarise some key conclusions and observations, from the importance of ocean literacy and nature-based solutions to the need for collaboration and investable innovations.

October 22nd marked World Energy Day. The quest for energy has always been a balancing act between the benefits and costs of creation or extraction, storage, transportation and waste disposal. As populations have grown, humans have searched for new energy sources. Wave, tidal and wind energy are now part of the green energy mix.

In a conversation for Therma's Point 01 podcast I spoke with co-founder Aaron Cohen about how reinvigorating the ocean economy will lead to sustained and equitable economic growth. 

On September 8th I will be moderating a session on “A Sustainable Ocean Economy” at the Founders Forum Climate Summit during London Tech Week. I will be joined by a great panel of ocean investment experts.

As part of the Blue Recovery Series, the World Ocean Initiative hosted a webinar on the roles of science, innovation and investment in establishing a sustainable ocean economy in the post-coronavirus period.

On 20 August I was interviewed on The Peggy Smedley Show, a leading podcast on digital transformation that averages 115,000 listeners. The discussion revolved around sustainability in the seas, why we need to stop thinking of the economy as linear and why sustainability is a business issue, amongst other items.

On 19 August I spoke about the economics of coral reef ecosystems at an Ocean Exchange webinar. It was great to learn from Sam Teicher of Coral Vita about his company's coral reef restoration projects.

On August 13th I moderated a webinar that brought together the winners of the World Ocean Initiative’s Women and the ocean: Changemakers challenge and their three mentors. The panel discussed the changemakers' vision for the blue economy, outlined the potential impact of their projects and detailed what they expect to gain from the mentorship.

As countries consider how to rebuild their economies after the covid-19 pandemic while also tackling the climate crisis, an immense arena of opportunity lies before them—one where every US$1 invested could yield at least US$5 in returns: the world ocean.

Between 24 and 26 July 2020 I presented about ocean sustainability at the 15th Annual Green Economics Institute Conference.