Story | 03 Nov, 2020

IUCN joins ORRAA: designed to drive, by 2030, $500 million into finance products that invest in coastal natural capital

IUCN is pleased to announce that it joins the Ocean Risk and Resilience Alliance (ORRAA) as a full member. ORRAA brings together the insurance and finance sectors, governments, non-profit organisations, and stakeholders from the Global South to pioneer finance and insurance products that incentivise investment in nature-based solutions (NbS), with a focus on protecting the regions and communities that need it most.

ORRAA website image

Photo: ORRAA

The development of an investable project pipeline is essential. By joining forces with the Ocean Risk Alliance and linking the the Ocean Resilience Innovation Challenge with IUCN’s Blue Natural Capital Financing Facility (BNCFF) and other IUCN efforts such as Coalition for Private Investment in Conservation (CPIC), we will be able to bring coastal and marine nature-based projects into investors’ portfolios."

Minna Epps, IUCN Global Marine and Polar Programme Director.

The problem ORRAA is created to address

By 2050, an estimated 800 million people will be at risk of storm surges from extreme weather events, and over 570 low-lying coastal cities will face sea level rise of at least 0.5 metres. Coastal communities in developing countries, Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and other low-lying areas are likely to be most severely impacted, with women and girls especially hard-hit.

There are many perceived barriers to investing in nature-based solutions for coastal protection. These include: a lack of understanding of how investing in natural capital can provide a timely and productive return, and insufficient data and modelling capabilities for investors to quantify ocean-derived risks.

There is a huge opportunity to develop pioneering finance and insurance products that reduce ocean risk and build the resilience of coastal areas to emerging hazards.

Karen Sack, ORRAA Co-chair, adds: "The scale and urgency of the challenges posed by ocean-derived risks call for a transformative and global response. ORRAA is a growing alliance designed to promote the cross-sector collaboration and financial innovation required to address those risks. We’re delighted to welcome IUCN as our latest member, and to draw on their expertise and initiatives to build resilience in the most vulnerable coastal communities and ecosystems."

How finding finance for solutions will be conducted

The United Nations has called on the finance and insurance industries to respond to the challenges associated with ocean risk.

The Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance (ORRAA) is a multi-sector collaboration designed to drive $500 million into ground-breaking finance products by 2030 that invest in coastal natural capital. In so doing, it will incentivise blended finance and private investment into the regions and communities that need it most.

ORRAA aims to surface at least 15 novel finance products by 2025 to build the foundation of this new marketplace. To help reach this goal, ORRAA has launched its Ocean Resilience Innovation Challenge to identify and nurture a pipeline of up to 10 finance and insurance innovations. The Challenge runs until 20 November.

Find out more at the ORRAA website or follow the alliance on Twitter @ORRAAnews

LINKS:

ORRAA Twitter