The greatest economic and social value of our ocean lies not in the short-sighted goal of dividing up the rights to extract its resources, but in protecting the ocean’s biodiversity, physical structures and biogeochemical functioning—the ocean’s integrity and rights as a living system. These aspects are vital to mitigating climate change, reversing our current biodiversity crisis and delivering the conditions for a sustainable blue economy and a life of well-being globally. Protecting the ocean cannot be solely a precautionary step taken through environmental impact assessments prior to extractive permissions. Instead, it should arise through a wholesale reorientation in which the protection of the ocean’s integrity and health is understood as a sacred global trust of co-inherited wealth, our global blue natural capital.

Listen here to keynote address "Towards an Equitable and Nature-Positive Economy"

Listen here to a presentation at UN World Ocean Day, NYC - June 8th, 2022