One Ocean, One Climate: Building Synergies across ocean, climate, and biodiversity frameworks for a stronger nature economy

This year, a series of major international milestones are placing the ocean at the front of the agenda – across biodiversity, conservation, and climate – including the first Conference of the Parties (COP1) of the landmark High Seas (BBNJ) Agreement. At the UN Climate Conference (COP31), all three presidencies — Türkiye, Australia, and the Pacific — have committed to making the ocean a priority.

This plenary will explore how the upcoming climate conference and regional platforms for ocean conservation finance can help advance climate outcomes. Much of global policy’s impact depends on regional implementation— and regional financial tools are often what make that implementation possible. The Pacific Resilience Facility is one such example, translating global climate and biodiversity commitments into finance a region can actually deploy.

This plenary session presents two critical discussions:

Opening Remarks and Ministerial Segment

High-level remarks opening with the COP31 presidencies’ shared commitment to making the ocean a priority — and what that commitment needs to mean in practice. From there, remarks turn to how regional platforms, including the Pacific Resilience Facility, translate that commitment into finance and action on the ground.

Panel Progress in Action: Scaling Ocean Resilience – Closing the Gap between Ambition and Investment

The blue economy is where climate ambition meets economic opportunity. Turning ocean-based ideas into reality requires research, talent, and organizations  to design, create, and implement projects. Those ideas then require capital: from  blue bonds and debt-for-nature swaps to Indigenous-led conservation finance, a new generation of tools has unlocked over a billion dollars for the ocean in the past five years alone. Yet, ocean-based solutions are still only 1% of global climate finance, and capital delivers only when it reaches the communities that can use it. To deliver on the promise of the ocean, how can we catalyze a new wave of ocean solutions and finance?