The blue economy is attracting increasing political and financial interest. The number of international summits integrating this issue is unprecedented. Last February, the World Ocean Summit organised in Brest (France) brought together over 30 countries, illustrating the awareness of the value of our common ocean heritage.
For port cities such as the Principality of Monaco, this capital is essential for economic attractiveness. Monaco has historically been committed to the preservation of the oceans and every year organises the Monaco Ocean Week bringing together experts in the sector. This event is also growing in importance.
The ocean economy is now at the heart of our economic system, since 80% of our manufactured products are transported by sea freight, coastal areas are home to nearly 60% of the world's population and fisheries production is the fastest growing segment of the food industry.
The health of our oceans, coasts and freshwater ecosystems is therefore critical to growth, but also essential to environmental preservation. In particular, the ocean is the largest carbon sink on our planet, absorbing nearly 30% of the CO2 emissions released by human activity, thus helping to regulate our climate. This is why we call the Blue Economy the industrial segments that sustainably and respectfully exploit the ocean's heritage.
Among these, the ocean offers solutions to the urgent need for ecological transition, via the force of currents exploitable by tidal energy, or wind energy, which is multiplied tenfold in the open sea. Already seen as an essential energy source for achieving the Paris Climate Agreement, the industry's prospects have recently accelerated thanks to the RePowerEU plan, which aims to make Europe independent of Russian gas. This is expected to significantly shorten the development time for offshore projects.
Aquaculture production represents a source of food protein that emits up to 10 times less greenhouse gas than meat production. The explosion of the Asian middle class, which consumes a great deal of fish, will greatly increase demand. With wild fish stocks already at alarming levels, aquaculture and fish farming, which are still emerging industries, appear to be essential solutions for preserving biodiversity.
Threatened by acidification, overfishing and pollution, the ocean will inevitably be at the heart of technological innovation in the coming decade. The main drivers of this growth will be technologies to reduce CO2 emissions, reduce chemical and plastic pollution, and develop a sustainable aquaculture sector. We estimate that these segments will grow organically by 5% to 10% per year until 2030.
In order to gain exposure to these themes, SILEX has developed a proprietary blue score, based on the European taxonomy, to measure the contribution of companies to the growth segments of the blue economy. A robust and transparent management tool for sustainable investment in the Ocean economy.
