May 22, 2026
According to a briefing from the World Economic Forum published on 2026-05-22, the ocean supports roughly 90% of global trade by volume and provides daily protein for over 3 billion people. It also helps regulate climate and protect coastal infrastructure through ecosystems such as reefs and mangroves.
The report describes the ocean not as a niche environmental topic but as a macroeconomic foundation. From a capital markets perspective, however, it remains both underpriced and under-allocated.
This situation creates a dual dynamic: material risk is already embedded across portfolios—though not always priced in—while structural growth opportunities remain largely untapped.
Ocean-related risk is pervasive and systemic, impacting nearly all geographies and industries. It can enter portfolios through physical disruption and systemic spillovers, sometimes without project developers or capital providers realizing it.
In 2021, major floods across Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands disrupted waterways, causing EUR10 billion in damages, with EUR2.55 billion in insured losses. The damage extended beyond physical infrastructure, affecting retail inventories, revenues, commodity prices, insurance and reinsurance markets, and reconstruction costs for governments.
Key sectors such as automotive manufacturing and construction halted production due to material shortages, demonstrating how interconnected disruptions can affect entire industries. Portfolios with no obvious coastal exposure inherit risk through logistics dependency, insurance markets and sovereign credit.
Industries that depend heavily on global supply chains—including electronics, chemicals, apparel, automotive and food—are indirectly exposed even without owning maritime assets.
Ocean system degradation also creates cascading macroeconomic impacts: shifts in fisheries productivity affect global food prices; coral reef loss increases storm damage; ocean warming drives weather volatility; and declining marine carbon sinks raise long-term decarbonization costs.
These costs are already being absorbed by insurers, governments and households. Investors face implicit liabilities that may not yet be fully priced into assets.
On the growth side, ocean-based industries generate more than $3 trillion in annual economic value, outpacing broader global economic growth by 1.3 times over the past two decades. The report notes projections that the sector could grow to $5.1 trillion by 2050, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
A second wave of ocean innovation is gaining momentum across blue bioeconomy, ocean-based energy, pollution-mitigating technologies, and restoration and nature markets. Between 2010 and 2025, early-stage enterprise value in these sectors increased from $1.1 billion to $24.7 billion, as outlined by the World Economic Forum and McKinsey & Co. Marine carbon dioxide removal ventures attracted $209 million by 2025, with most funding directed toward technology-based initiatives.
Ocean-related start-ups currently represent roughly $120 billion in enterprise value, but could scale toward $1.3 trillion based on historical climate-technology valuation multiples.
Investing in incumbent and emerging ocean sectors may capture structural upside while potentially reducing risks already embedded in portfolios. Capital allocation toward ocean natural capital and companies aiming to reduce or reverse ocean harm could mitigate long-term deterioration of ocean health.
The report recommends three next steps: mapping ocean exposure across asset classes; incorporating risk-transfer and resilience instruments such as parametric insurance and resilience-linked financing; and allocating to growth platforms including offshore energy, maritime decarbonization infrastructure, sustainable aquaculture and coastal resilience funds.
The ocean economy does not fit neatly into a single category or thematic sleeve, which is why it is often overlooked. Treating it solely as an environmental issue underestimates its macroeconomic significance, and ignoring it as an asset class risks mispricing exposure that is already present. Strategic investments in sustainable and nature-positive ocean economy sectors could strengthen portfolios and insulate them from risk in the long term.