Platform Zero is dedicated to promoting green practices in the maritime and energy sector. Through informative articles based on research and expert interviews, we aim to educate readers on sector trends. If you’re an expert interested in contributing, contact us at info@platformzero.co!
Rotterdam, February 21 , 2024
Climate change poses a significant global threat to oceans with ongoing risks unless we actively protect and restore them. Increased absorption of carbon dioxide is causing ocean acidification, negatively impacting ecosystems and species. Climate change also contributes to ocean warming, leading to rising sea levels and heightened vulnerability for coastal communities.
Despite these challenges, oceans act as vital climate change mitigators. They absorb 90% of excess heat and 23% of human-induced CO2 emissions, functioning as crucial heat and carbon sinks. However, this role is jeopardized by the climate change-driven vicious cycle that distorts the natural balance between the ocean and air.
Breaking this cycle requires industries, especially the maritime sector, to take responsibility for their impact on oceans. As pointed out by the European Environment Agency, many maritime organisations contribute to ocean degradation, necessitating a shift to net-zero or net-positive impacts.
Platform Zero analysed over 60 ocean health start-ups and scale-ups, focusing on innovative ideas mitigating the impact of the shipping industry to ocean health. In ocean health ventures, five key themes come forward: water quality management, ecosystem resilience, ocean digital data, carbon sequestration, and sustainable aquaculture. For the purpose of this article, focussing on the maritime industry, we will elaborate on the first four themes, excluding aquacultural management. For all topics, we will highlight one inspiring venture that we came across.
Notably, an intriguing trend emerges as ventures not only strive to preserve but also actively seek to restore and enhance the biodiversity of the oceans. Some even explore the potential of leveraging the ocean as a carbon sink. This is referred to as blue carbon solutions; a report by McKinsey shows that is is an emerging trend in the category of ocean health.
Carbon sequestration ventures, which indirectly includes ecosystem resilience as well as water quality management ventures, are becoming increasingly important as the world discovers the ocean’s immense potential to mitigate climate change. Additionally, ocean health initiatives are supported by the growing digital capabilities of startups, unlocking new possibilities for sustainable and impactful solutions.
Water quality management
This category refers to ventures that tackle challenges such as oceanic plastic pollution and biofouling. While plastic pollution is a visible problem—something people witness and experience in the form of plastic soup and its consequences on marine life—there is often a lack of awareness regarding the harm caused by the accumulation of microorganisms, plants, algae, or small animals on ship hulls referred to as biofouling. Biofouling results in the loss of speed of vessels, leading to decreased fuel efficiency, and the introduction of invasive species to new waters. Ships frequently employ preventive unsustainable antifouling methods to combat biofouling; however, the chemicals utilised in these methods also pose a threat to the ocean’s biodiversity. Ventures solve this issue by either sustainable fouling methods or sustainable hull cleaning services.
Ecosubsea is an impressive scale-up in the category of water quality management. Ecosubsea provides services for sustainable hull cleaning, boosting the fuel efficiency of ships, reducing costs and CO2 emissions, and preventing invasive species from being introduced to new environments.
Ecosystem resilience
Ecosystem resilience concerns ventures that assist in the recovery of ecosystems that have been damaged, degraded, or destroyed. The restoration of mangroves or planting of artificial reefs can improve coastal resilience, water quality, and carbon sequestration, and support the overall biodiversity. This topic is particularly relevant for ports that seek to protect their ports from rising sea levels.
Coral vita is an innovative venture that aims to restore the biodiversity of the oceans. They grow coral on a large scale through land-based farms. They claim to be 50 times faster than normal (ocean-based) farms – thereby boosting their resilience against climate change and restoring reefs in the most effective way possible.
Carbon sequestration
Carbon sequestration organizations leverage the ocean’s function as carbon sink. This function is distorted by human activity causing an excess of CO2 emissions. Therefore, most organizations aim to restore the CO2 balance between ocean and air by planting algae that can capture large amounts of CO2, while others deacidify the oceans by neutralizing CO2 to enhance their capability to take on more CO2.
Brilliant Planet is one of the leaders in high-quality carbon removal. They produce algae and convert it into stable biomass, which can be buried and remain stable for thousands of years. They also contribute to ocean health by deacidifying large amounts of water in the process.
Ocean digital data
Ocean digital data start-ups/scale-ups utilize the newest technological developments to capture essential ocean data needed to efficiently improve the ocean’s health. These ventures use information and communcation technologies to gather relevant data regarding the water quality, biodiversity, ocean floors, or just to explore since more than 80% of the ocean remains unexplored. Ocean digital data is an overarching category, as all ocean health-related start-ups and scale-ups usually use digital technology to assist their operations.
Planblue is an inspiring venture that believes in the value of our oceans. Therefore their mission is to gather real-time, objective, and meaningful data to tackle threats posed to the ocean. They provide scalable health and biodiversity maps of the seafloor, which is needed to effectively fight climate change.
Enthusiastic about this topic? Contact us at info@platformzero.co and we can tell you more about it!
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