The booming ocean economy sustains hundreds of millions of people, but it is being squeezed dry by overfishing, pollution, climate change and waste, UN economists have warned, in a call for smarter, more concerted action to protect the world’s vast marine spaces for future generations.
In the run-up to the UN Ocean Conference 2025 in June, the UN trade and development agency, UNCTAD, emphasized that oceans are essential to all life, by sustaining biodiversity, regulating the climate and generating oxygen.
Oceans also have massive untapped economic potential that is capable of delivering food security, creating jobs and driving global trade.
“The amount of exports of ocean goods and services reached $2.2 trillion in 2023, so it’s growing very fast,” said David Vivas, UNCTAD Chief for Trade, Environment and the Sustainable Development Branch, on the sidelines of the 5th UN Ocean Forum in Geneva.
According to the UN agency, the world’s ocean economies have grown 250 percent since 1995, far outpacing the global economy, which grew by 190 percent over the same period.
Behind this growth is growing South-South trade, where fresh fish exports have increased by 43 percent; processed fish exports have risen by a staggering 89 percent from 2021 to 2023.
Today, 600 million people are sustained by and therefore dependent on the fishing industry alone, most of them in developing countries.
According to UNCTAD, two thirds of species living in the ocean have yet to be identified, offering the potential for the discovery of new antibiotics, low-carbon foods and other bio-based materials such as plastic substitutes, which provide a $10.8-billion market opportunity alone.
In 2025, the marine biotechnology market is set to grow by more than 50 percent this year, compared to 2023.
However, despite this potential, the ocean economy faces imminent threats from poor governance, underinvestment and climate shocks.
These include our already warming oceans, rising sea levels and extreme weather hazards which endanger marine ecosystems, fish populations, coastal infrastructure and shipping routes, particularly for coastal communities.
And while most national climate plans do not take into account the ocean economy, UNCTAD’s Mr. Vivas underscored its importance in achieving the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement as an estimated 11 percent of all emissions worldwide are caused by ocean-based activities.
Drop in the ocean
Beyond climate-related impacts, woeful underfunding for ocean preservation and harmful practices further threaten the industry.
“While oceans represent 70 percent of the biosphere, less than one per cent of the global development assistance is invested into its conservation and sustainable use,” Vivas told journalists in Geneva.
Achieving the universally agreed Sustainable Development Goal 14 of protecting life below water requires $175 billion annually, yet only $4 billion has been contributed from national funds, philanthropists and private investment, making it the most underfunded sustainability goal (SDG).
The sum “is nothing less than peanuts; basically, politicians are not putting their money where their mouth is,” Vivas said. “This huge part of the planet is totally invisible in terms of sustainable-use conservation for future generations.”
This stands in stark contrast to $22 billion invested in harmful subsidies in the global fishing industry, which contributes to overfishing.
Further obstacles limiting the potential of the marine economy involve extraordinarily high tariffs among developing countries. While high-income countries apply 3.2 percent tariffs on fish products, developing countries on average apply 14 percent tariffs among themselves, curbing trade heavily. UN News