Ocean Gets Under 1% of Climate Finance, COP31 Panelists Warn
COP 31 Side Events • United NationsNovember 13, 2026
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Ocean-based climate solutions draw less than 1% of global finance, panelists said Nov. 13, 2026, at "Turning the Tide," a COP31 side event on ocean climate action. Across three panels, speakers from Palau, Senegal, Mexico's Quintana Roo state and international institutions named the same obstacles: thin data, slow bureaucracy and money that rarely reaches the coastal communities doing the work.
- Ocean solutions get under 1% of global finance, though the ocean absorbs a quarter of CO2, panelist says
- Offshore wind needs about 2,000 gigawatts by 2050, backed by concessional finance
- Island and state officials call bureaucracy a top barrier to ocean finance
- Quintana Roo has spent more than 700 million pesos responding to sargassum
- Court opinions raise the bar: experts say ITLOS and ICJ rulings strengthen the 1.5 C target
- Only about 15% of countries report progress on ocean measures in climate pledges
The basics: Nationally determined contributions, or NDCs, are the climate pledges countries submit under the Paris Agreement. Concessional finance is lending or grant money offered on better-than-market terms to make risky projects viable.
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