Investors in 66% of listed companies are collectively at risk of losing US$8.4 trillion due to declining ocean health and climate change if business as usual continues. Even keeping global temperature rise to 2°C will result in losses of US$3.3 trillion, which highlights the importance of keeping global temperature rise to the Paris Agreement target of below 1.5oC. The figures were released in a report, Navigating Ocean Risk: Value at Risk in the Global Blue Economy, published by WWF and Metabolic, which concludes that the financial sector needs to better assess ocean risks in their portfolios and must pivot from investments that damage the ocean environment to sustainable business models. Repairing damage to the ocean will revive one of the world’s greatest resources and largest carbon sinks, without which it will be far harder to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C.
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