September 28, 2022

"We need to take action every single day"

Ocean advocates Lewis Pugh, OIG and Sir Ben Ainslie, CBE sound the alarm and urge accelerated ocean protection at the Deutsche Bank x ORRAA Ocean Conference 2022

The United Nations Patron of the Oceans and endurance swimmer, Lewis Pugh, OIG and champion Olympic sailor Sir Ben Ainslie, CBE have called for global leaders, including private investors, to help accelerate ocean protection to achieve the United Nations goal of protecting 30% of global marine environments by 2030.

Delivering the keynote address at a private event on the Spanish island of Mallorca, Lewis Pugh said: “We need to accelerate our efforts to protect the Ocean and take action every single day. If challenges get in the way, we need to redouble our efforts. As the planet’s biggest carbon sink, the Ocean’s health is vital to limiting climate change impact, especially for vulnerable habitats like coral reefs.”

Coral reefs sustain 25 percent of all marine life yet cover less than 1 percent of the Ocean. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned that if global warming hits the 1.5°C target, 75-90 percent of the world's coral reefs could die off.¹⁾ A 2°C warming could make all tropical corals extinct.

At the ocean conference, hosted by Deutsche Bank and the Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance (ORRAA), Pugh and Ainslie told a group of influential investors, entrepreneurs and philanthropists that the future of the Ocean lay in their hands, as holders of significant private capital.

The inaugural Deutsche Bank x ORRAA Ocean Conference aims to build an investment community to support the sustainable blue economy, starting with Deutsche Bank’s clients.

Head of the IPB and Chief Executive Officer of EMEA, Claudio de Sanctis said: “Deutsche Bank is committed to accelerating sustainable solutions for the ocean by enabling private capital into ocean finance to create lasting impact for future generations.”

ORRAA Executive Director Karen Sack said: “This conference is a really important stepping stone in terms of further developing the investment community for the Ocean. It is more important than ever that we bring together the smart thinking of investors, entrepreneurs and scientists and use this to catalyse action and investment into ocean resilience.”

In June, Deutsche Bank supported the development of ORRAA’s Sea Change Impact Financing Facility (SCIFF) which aims to drive at least 1 billion US dollars of investment into coastal and ocean ecosystems by 2030, and mobilise 2.5 billion US dollars into the space.

The conference brought together ocean experts, academics, NGOs, investors and ocean impact startups, to accelerate investment into a sustainable blue economy and nature-based solutions to benefit the ocean ecosystem.  Ocean impact startups attending the conference included EcoSubsea, Ocean Bottle, Matter, Avant Meats, Biofeyn, Coral Vita, ECOncrete, and Bound4Blue.

_{1) https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/sites/2/2019/06/SR15_Full_Report_Low_Res.pdf}

For further information please contact:

Deutsche Bank AG

Media Relations

Stuart Haslam

Email: stuart.haslam@db.com         

ORRAA

Rishi Bhattacharya

Email: rishi.bhattacharya@oceanriskalliance.org

About Deutsche Bank 

Deutsche Bank provides retail and private banking, corporate and transaction banking, lending, asset and wealth management products and services as well as focused investment banking to private individuals, small and medium-sized companies, corporations, governments and institutional investors. Deutsche Bank is the leading bank in Germany with strong European roots and a global network.

About the Ocean Risk & Resilience Action Alliance (ORRAA):

ORRAA is a multi-sector collaboration connecting the international finance and insurance sectors, governments, non-profits, and stakeholders from the Global South to pioneer finance products that incentivise investment into coastal and ocean Nature-based Solutions. Its goal, by 2030, is to activate at least $500million of investment into this space, and in so doing, help build the resilience of at least 250 million climate vulnerable coastal people.