Ocean Changemakers Challenge: The next wave of innovators 2022

Year-round and at their flagship annual World Ocean Summit, they foster a global conversation on the greatest challenges facing the seas, inspiring bold thinking, new partnerships and the most effective action to build a sustainable ocean economy. Economist Impact’s World Ocean Initiative imagines an ocean in robust health, and with a vital economy. The Initiative concentrates on three cross-cutting levers of change —blue finance, governance and innovation — each of which concern the ‘what’ and the ‘why’ for a sustainable ocean, but most of all they explore the ‘how’.

Looking for fully-funded opportunities, install the Youth Opportunities Android or iOS App here.

Into this stressed ocean a new wave of investment in the ‘blue economy’ is emerging, encouraged by ambitious national ocean strategies. The opportunities to guide development that respects or better still restores ocean health are enormous, as are the opportunities for creating jobs, income and growth. Yet so too are the risks, to the ocean and to our own well-being. A ‘blue’ economy implies some measure of alignment between economic development and the health of the ocean. Early signs are, in most countries, that the ‘blue economy’ typically prioritises growth over sustainability. Even where there is an explicit intention to align the two, the gap between these differing objectives is wide.

The World Ocean Initiative will address this challenge. The past decade has seen a public awakening to the ocean. Turning this momentum into tangible gains, at scale, is the next step. We look forward to working with, and convening, policymakers, businesses and others who share a similar vision, expanding on the foundations of the World Ocean Summit to realise an ocean in robust health, and with a vital economy.

The World Ocean Initiative translates the momentum and focus of the World Ocean Summit into a year-round program on the ocean that leverages the full capabilities of Economist Impact, combining the rigors of a think-tank with the creativity of a media brand to engage a globally influential audience. Through carefully designed and sequenced research and knowledge-building, by convening decision-makers across the ocean space and with the power of The Economist Group behind us, we aim to build new outcomes-focused agendas, and new constituencies, across our levers of change—blue finance, governance and innovation. The World Ocean Summit beats at the heart of the World Ocean Initiative, providing an annual stage to mark progress across our own initiative, and elsewhere across the cutting edge of the global ocean agenda.