Good morning. It is a privilege to join you for a conversation that could not be more urgent — or more consequential.

For too long, the ocean has been treated as a distant environmental issue. It is not. It is the life-support system of our climate, our food security, and our economies.

That life-support system is under strain. Oceans absorb around 90% of the excess heat from climate change and about a quarter of global carbon emissions — but they are paying the price. Acidity is rising, fish stocks are under pressure, and vital ecosystems such as mangroves and coral reefs are declining.

In Asia, this is not an abstract challenge. Ocean conservation is critically about lives and livelihoods. It is about food on the table. And it is about the resilience of coastal communities.

Asia accounts for about three-quarters of global fisheries production and is home to some of the world’s richest marine ecosystems. More than 1.3 billion people live within 50 kilometres of a coastline. For them, ocean health is not a future concern — it is a daily reality.

Yet our response is not keeping pace with the scale of the challenge. Despite growing interest in blue finance, investment remains far short¹.

The gap is not simply one of capital. It is a gap between promising solutions and investable scale — between what works locally and what can move markets.

But we know progress is possible, in re-imagining the power of investing. Standard Chartered’s work on the sovereign blue bond with Seychelles and the World Bank showed that ocean health can be investable — and that government, philanthropy, concessional finance, and private capital can align around shared outcomes.

Another example is the Philanthropy Asia Alliance, which Temasek Trust set up 4 years ago with what is now about 110 funders and partners. Here, a Blue Oceans Community helps to co-fund initiatives around ocean governance, coastal resilience, and marine food systems.

Our task now is to move from such pioneering efforts to repeatable, scalable models.

I believe the opportunity lies in three shifts.

• First, make the ocean economy a jobs agenda. The ocean transition will gain wider support when people can see not only what must be protected, but what can be created — meaningful work in restoring mangroves and coral reefs, building sustainable fisheries, improving marine monitoring, reducing plastic waste, and growing nature-positive coastal enterprises.
• Second, build capabilities where communities are most exposed. Capital alone will not deliver resilience. Communities will need skills, tools, data, and enterprise support to turn stewardship into viable livelihoods. The best ocean solutions will be those that protect ecosystems and strengthen local agency at the same time.
• Third, use blended finance to scale what works. Philanthropy can take early risk, fund evidence, and back innovation so public and private capital can follow. That is how pilots become markets. That is how local solutions become regional systems. And that is how ocean action becomes opportunity.

As Asia is on the frontlines of ocean risk, that also means Asia can be at the forefront of ocean solutions.

To get there, we need more than project funding. We need science that informs policy, capabilities that empower communities, and financing structures that reward real outcomes — in healthier reefs, restored mangroves, more resilient livelihoods, and better prospects for the next generation.

The questions before us are therefore not theoretical. They are deeply practical — and profoundly human:

• How do we make ocean health investable while ensuring that communities and people — inter-generationally — can share in the value created?
  
• What skills, enablers, and financing models will turn sustainable ocean transition into meaningful work and shared prosperity?
  

If we get this right, the ocean economy will not only be more sustainable. It will be more inclusive, more resilient, and more hopeful — for the communities who depend on it today, and for the generations who will inherit it tomorrow.

That is the partnership opportunity before us. Thank you. 

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