Autumn 2020: Coverage in Responsible Investor for work on Blue Bonds and Ocean Investments and Global Fund for Coral Reefs

“Another fund looking to make an impact on SDG14 is the Global Fund for Coral Reefs…Tenke Zoltani, founder of BetterFinance and advisor to the fund, says the blended finance structure “is really in vogue”, because it allows the public sector to leverage private finance for crucial new investment areas like oceans, as well as offering responsible investors a chance to explore new themes in less risky ways than might otherwise be available. One of the biggest success stories in ocean investing so far has been a $21.6m sovereign debt restructuring deal in the Seychelles…A subcategory of green bonds, transactions require the issuer to spend proceeds on projects or business activities that support the blue economy, and report on spending and impact. A report from think-tank Planet Tracker this summer claimed that such instruments could finance a recovery in the ocean’s fish stocks by 2040, saying the asset class could be bolstered by regulatory moves such as a recent decision from the European Commission to implement a management plan for fish stocks in the Western Mediterranean. “The interest in blue bonds has really accelerated,” says Zoltani. Like green bonds or SDGlinked bonds, “they provide a pretty flexible structure with a really wide application that the capital markets understand. They’re good for private and institutional investors, and they suit pension funds.” The nature of investing in the blue economy means that most of the blue bonds currently under discussion are sovereign issuances. “Governments are trying to get their head around how they can issue these and they're turning to the UN for help because they're not really comfortable yet in putting together such a structure on their own,” observes Zoltani. https://www.responsible-investor.com/articles/a-deep-dive-into-investing-in-the-blue-economy