Financed through the UK’s Blue Planet Fund, this call for proposals is part of ORRAA’s mission to catalyse the investment of at least USD$500 million into coastal and marine natural capital through the development and deployment of financial products that aim to build the resilience of 250 million climate vulnerable coastal people, by 2030.

The call is looking to back pioneering innovations, with up to USD$500,000 in support to nurture and scale the development of community-led finance and insurance products that build coastal and ocean resilience.

Projects should be located or deployed in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and Coastal Least Developed Countries (LDCs). They should lock in sustainable financing, align with local community priorities, and be climate, nature, and gender positive; they should enable the development of ocean and coastal Nature-based Solutions (NbS), support adaptation and resilience, or mitigate risk multipliers like overfishing and pollution.

Environment Secretary Thérèse Coffey said: “It is absolutely vital we continue to take concrete action to manage our ocean sustainably and drive forward our mission to protect at least 30 per cent of the world’s ocean by 2030, ensuring the international marine environment – and the communities who rely on it – can thrive.”

She continued: “Our £500 million Blue Planet Fund is already supporting pioneering projects around the globe, and I’m delighted to add our support to ORRAA’s new programme that will help deliver innovative community-led projects to build resilience, protect coastal communities and ultimately invest in the future of our marine environment.”

Karen Sack, executive director of the Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance said: “As we mark Earth Day 2023 – with its theme “Invest in our Planet” – it is more important than ever that we focus on investing in the biggest biosphere on Earth: the Ocean. This latest call for proposals is a key part of the strategy of building an investable project pipeline from the ground-up. Why? Because the lack of an investable project pipeline is the most mentioned issue raised by private sector investors as a barrier to investment.”

Find out more about the Blue Planet Fund call for proposals here. The call for proposals opens today, Saturday 22 April 2023 and closes at midnight BST on Sunday, 2 July 2023. Prospective applicants can submit project proposals through the ORRAA application portal.

An information webinar will be held on Tuesday, 16 May 2023. You can sign up here.

For more from our Ocean Newsroom, click here.