Giving Compass' Take:

• At GreenBiz, Andrew Urervig lists strategies to pay the exorbitant yearly cost necessary to achieve global objectives in saving the oceans.

• How have we let these costs skyrocket so drastically? What can we do to prevent it from getting so out-of-hand in the future? What is your role in supporting climate change efforts in regard to saving the oceans? 

• Learn more about the rapidly warming oceans and their effect.

In 2015, 193 countries agreed on 17 global objectives for ending poverty and protecting the environment by 2030. These Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) included SDG 14, to "conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development."

A new study by two former diplomats with the CONOW Competence Centre for International Relations published in the journal Marine Policy estimates that to hit the targets needed to achieve this SDG the world must spend $175 billion per year.

To bring the needed funding and urgency to SDG 14, the researchers issue 10 recommendations:

  1. Acknowledge how wasteful lifestyles mar our oceans, then shift our culture and consumption in a more sustainable direction.
  2. Keep SDG 14 on local and international political agendas.
  3. Invest in institutions that can implement ocean solutions, particularly in developing countries.
  4. Put effort into developing knowledge and technology that builds the capacity to protect ocean health.
  5. Target spending better. This could be accomplished in part by ending the some $20 billion in harmful subsidies to fisheries. At the same time, decision-makers should bring the SDG 14 targets into more development and environmental policymaking.
  6. Scale up traditional funding. Most of the money spent on biodiversity efforts, the report says, come from national governments and international organizations, which could mean big impact if these states and groups up their contributions even further.
  7. Engage the private sector. Businesses might help do their part by paying for ecosystem services or investing in financial innovations such as blue bonds.
  8. Get more money from philanthropists, who the research estimates currently contribute just $1 billion per year to ocean health.
  9. Support trust funds dedicated to ocean conservation.
  10. Coordinate overall financial efforts for SDG 14 by working for sustainable ocean financing.

Read the full article about the excessive cost of saving the oceans by Andrew Urevig at GreenBiz.