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Each year, global leaders gather in Davos to confront the challenges shaping humanity’s future. From climate change and biodiversity loss to food systems and economic security, these issues share a powerful common thread: the ocean.
The ocean regulates our climate, sustains billions of livelihoods, and anchors global ecosystems. Yet too often, it remains at the margins of high-level decision-making. At OceanX, we know that understanding the ocean is not optional, it is essential to building a sustainable future where humanity and the ocean thrive together.
This January at Davos, OceanX helped bring the ocean to the center of the conversation, demonstrating how marine science can inform smarter policies, guide responsible investment, and unlock solutions at global scale.
At Unlocking the Blue Economy: Science, Innovation, and Investment for a Sustainable Ocean Future, Dr. Vincent Pieribone, Co-CEO and Chief Scientific Officer of OceanX, joined moderator Karen Sack (Executive Director, ORRAA), Jonas Skattum Svegaarden (CEO, Katapult), Marisa Drew (Chief Sustainability Officer, Standard Chartered Bank), and May Liew (CEO, OCTAVE Capital) to examine how science, finance, and industry can work together to share risk, rather than externalize it onto ecosystems and coastal communities.
A central theme of the discussion was a reality often overlooked in ocean decision-making: the ocean operates as a deeply interconnected system, while governance, investment, and innovation remain largely siloed. Insights from integrated OceanX expeditions consistently show that ocean processes do not respect sectoral or jurisdictional boundaries. Data collected during single expeditions, spanning seafloor mapping, biodiversity surveys, water chemistry, and circulation, frequently reveal linkages between coastal, pelagic, and deep-sea systems that are managed separately on paper. Activity in one area can directly influence habitats, fisheries, and ecosystem dynamics far beyond its point of origin.
The panel emphasized why this systems perspective matters for the future of the blue economy. When interconnectedness and time delays are ignored, risk is routinely mispriced, leading financial and policy models to underestimate exposure and overestimate the reversibility of impacts. Innovation, too, requires system-level context: technologies and business models that appear viable in isolation can fail when deployed without understanding surrounding ocean dynamics. Capital informed by how ocean systems actually function is more durable, better able to withstand regulatory shifts, ecological change, and longer investment horizons, and ultimately more likely to support a truly sustainable ocean economy.
At Financing the Living Planet, Dr. Vincent Pieribone joined Chavalit Frederick Tsao (Chairman, Number 17 Foundation) and moderator Alfredo Giron (World Economic Forum) to announce a collaborative Island Restoration Project that brings together marine science and community-led conservation. Still in early planning, with the pilot island location to be confirmed, the initiative aims to demonstrate how integrated approaches to restoration can deliver environmental, social, and economic benefits together.
The project builds on a core insight from OceanX research: ocean health, local livelihoods, and long-term economic value are deeply interconnected. Effective investment strategies recognize these linkages, addressing ecosystem recovery alongside community resilience and sustainable economic opportunity rather than treating them as separate challenges. By aligning science-driven restoration with local leadership, the initiative has the potential to offer a scalable blueprint for coastal and island restoration efforts worldwide.
This theme carried into a featured panel discussion with Dr. Pieribone, which explored how ocean science can directly inform climate solutions and why public–private partnerships are essential to advancing marine conservation at the scale the moment demands. Bringing together leaders from across sectors, the conversation underscored practical pathways for integrating ocean health into sustainable development strategies. The takeaway was clear: when science guides collaboration, discovery can translate into meaningful, lasting action.
Recognizing both the opportunity and urgency that Indonesia’s biodiverse ecosystems present, Dr. Vincent Pieribone joined Indonesia’s Minister H.E. Sakti Wahyu Trenggono, UN Special Envoy Peter Thompson, Alfredo Giron (World Economic Forum), and Tony Wenas (KADIN) to announce the Ocean Impact Summit 2026 in Bali.
The Ocean Impact Summit is an Indonesia-led convening designed to align governments, scientists, businesses, and financiers around scientific reality before committing resources at scale. Looking ahead, OceanX shared plans for the summit as a platform to translate ocean research into tangible solutions, ensuring that investment and policy decisions are grounded in an accurate understanding of ocean systems.
Focused on mobilizing resources, forging partnerships, and turning knowledge into impact, the Ocean Impact Summit aims to accelerate action on ocean conservation and unlock the full potential of the Blue Economy. By bringing together bold leadership and global cooperation, the summit seeks to catalyze the commitments needed to address the ocean’s most urgent challenges—at the speed and scale the future requires.
From Davos, one truth stood out: the ocean is not a side issue. It is central to climate stability, food security, and global resilience. By bringing ocean science into the rooms where decisions are made, OceanX is helping ensure that discovery informs policy; education fuels innovation, and collaboration leads to lasting change.
We explore to understand. We understand to protect. And together, we can unlock the ocean’s sustainable potential, for the benefit of humanity and the planet we share.
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