Ocean philanthropy remains a small field. Funding directed specifically toward ocean-climate solutions is smaller still. At last week’s “Sea Change” panel on ocean-climate solutions in Asia, convened as part of the Philanthropy Asia Summit, the discussion kept returning to this mismatch: the ocean is central to the climate transition, yet ocean-climate philanthropy remains a rounding error in global giving. Ocean-climate philanthropy’s funding gap The numbers are stark: Less than 1.5% of global philanthropic giving goes to climate mitigation. About 0.25% goes to ocean issues. At the intersection of the two, the figure is roughly 0.05%. That is a narrow base of support for work that touches power generation, shipping, food systems, coastal protection, marine biodiversity, and the future of many island and coastal economies. The ocean has long been treated by funders primarily as a conservation concern. Grants have supported marine protected areas, fisheries management, coastal livelihoods, scientific research, and habitat protection. Much of that work remains essential. It has helped create institutions, protect places, and improve the management of fisheries and reefs. Climate change is now the force most likely to overwhelm many of those gains. Warming, acidification, rising seas, stronger storms, and shifting fish stocks are changing the conditions under which ocean conservation operates. Foundation Funding for Ocean-Climate (2015–2024). Foundation ocean-climate funding shown here is inclusive of all mitigation and sequestration-focused funding, including cross-cutting policy work. Funding to blue carbon is included in this chart as a sequestration strategy. Labels represent 2024 funding amounts. Graphic from “Funding Trends…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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