2024 Economist World Ocean Summit

Insights from the ground: how to integrate impact intelligence in the establishment of the blue economy.

Overview

The ocean is our life support system and the origin of all life on Earth. Every second breath of oxygen is provided by the sea and more than half of our global population relies on the ocean for a primary source of protein. Any effort for our collective wellbeing needs to include regenerative ocean action. 

As such, convenings like the Economist World Ocean Summit that focus on fostering a regenerative blue economy are critical to transforming our economic paradigm. Discussions throughout the conference reiterated that while the blue economy is becoming a frontier for impact investing, success hinges on better tools, better data systems and better alignment between finance and outcome-driven projects. 

Anthropogenic is well positioned to address this data gap to activate financial markets around what matters most. 

Key Learnings

1. Finance must be treated as central to the ocean economy.
   Investors, banks and asset managers were clear that the ocean is no longer an externality to ignore: a healthy ocean is foundational to a thriving global economy. This means that blue-economy investments are becoming strategic rather than purely philanthropic, and looking for investment-ready projects with sustainable business models.
   

2. Metrics, measurement and data matter — but current tools are inadequate.
   A major session titled “Metrics that Matter: Investing in the Sustainable Blue Economy” highlighted that simply increasing capital is not the only challenge — getting that capital into the right projects is key. Participants stressed:

• Without clear metrics and real-time data tie-ins, it’s difficult for investors to distinguish between genuine outcome-driven projects and greenwashed or low-impact ones.

• Nature- and ocean-related risks need to be recognised as financially material (e.g., biodiversity loss, ocean ecosystem disruption).

• Fit-for-purpose performance indicators must go beyond volume of investment to outcomes, risk profiles, value chains and business model viability.

• Real-world, dynamic data sources (such as satellite, weather, remote sensing) and external signals (beyond company disclosures) are crucial. The summit agenda referenced ocean observation data as a critical asset.
  

3. A systemic view is needed.
   The summit surfaced that the blue economy requires new business models, value-chain disruption, regulatory clarity and cooperation across science, finance and policy. We need to transition from “more data” to “better data that drives action” — aligning investment flows with measurable interdisciplinary ocean health outcomes and durable long-term value.
   

4. Bridging finance and implementation: closing the ‘right-project’ gap.
   The summit emphasized that the weak link isn’t lack of funds; capital isn’t flowing to projects with the right mix of risk, scale, impact and measurement frameworks. Workshops focused on “how to” create action points and practical frameworks for mobilizing investment into ocean-positive ventures. 

5. Accountability and transparency are vital. 

   Investors and financiers must move from pledges to implementation: tracking not just capital deployed but outcomes achieved — such as restored marine ecosystems, reduced ocean pollution, sustainable aquaculture practices, etc. to restore trust with stakeholders at the birth of this new market.

Impact Intelligence is Essential

The insights at the summit demonstrate the business case for Anthropogenic’s command center. The above challenges state the need for tools like that integrate satellite/remote data, nature-risk indices, value-chain analytics, and dynamic reporting to connect “what we invested” to “what changed in the ocean ecosystem”. 

The market is hungry for real-time, external signal integration to validate genuine outcomes. It is time to go beyond voluntarily disclosed internal corporate data to ingest satellite, weather, biodiversity, ocean-sensor data, and other external signals that reflect real ecosystem state and risks. Instead of dashboards as static reports of disconnected data, impact intelligence needs to deliver an operational center for decision-makers—showing actionable insights and meaning-making within a contextual framework.

Because the blue economy spans diverse sectors (shipping, aquaculture, marine energy, coastal infrastructure, tourism, cultural heritage), tools must handle value-chain complexity and connect project-level metrics with enterprise finance, impact returns and risk. To regain trust (among communities, regulators, investors) these systems must provide public-facing, verifiable data on outcomes, thereby enabling accountability and longer-term intergenerational thinking.

Conclusion

Overall, the blue economy is attracting increased investment and is developing emerging innovative financial instruments (ie. blue bonds). Bringing these concepts into reality at the scale needed and requires sophisticated command centers to channel true insights from data. Impact intelligence tools can provide the verification, tracking, transparency needed to link financial markets with high-impact projects and bring a regenerative blue economy into reality.