The historic coalition of philanthropic
funders — including Builders Vision, Bloomberg Philanthropies, and
Oceankind — taps Dr. Alasdair Harris
as its Director and has now pledged $300
million to advance ocean-based solutions to fight climate
change
ATHENS,
Greece, April 17, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Today,
the Ocean Resilience and Climate Alliance (ORCA), a funder
collaborative of leading climate and ocean institutions, announced
several exciting milestones just four months after its launch at
COP28, including the appointment of
Dr. Alasdair Harris as its Director
and an additional $50 million in
commitments, bringing ORCA's total investment to over $300 million. The coalition is also announcing
several of the lead grantees that are receiving funding and will
support efforts to accelerate ocean-climate and marine-based
initiatives.
Announcing ORCA's First Director
Dr. Harris has come
on board to lead the coalition, bringing two decades of experience
integrating community-led conservation with climate resilience
strategies, rejuvenating marine ecosystems, and bolstering
livelihoods for coastal communities. Most recently, he served as
the founding Executive Director of Blue Ventures, an organization
dedicated to rebuilding tropical fisheries with coastal
communities. Harris' work has pioneered new approaches to
leveraging local knowledge to foster stewardship and sustainable
use of marine resources, with an emphasis on impact at scale.
"I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to join ORCA and help
advance the work of this remarkable portfolio of ocean-based
climate solutions," said Dr. Harris, newly-announced Director of
ORCA. "From the high arctic to the tropics, ORCA grantees
demonstrate the vital role of our oceans and coastal communities in
addressing the climate crisis. ORCA will accelerate this critical
work while transforming the scale and ambition of ocean-climate
philanthropy."
Harnessing the Power of Oceans
ORCA officially
launched last December at COP28 with
an initial investment of $250 million
from more than a dozen established champions of ocean conservation,
including Ballmer Group, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Builders Vision,
the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore
Foundation, the Jeremy and Hannelore Grantham Environmental Trust,
Oak Foundation, Oceankind, Paul M. Angell Family Foundation, Rivian
Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Sergey Brin Family
Foundation, Vere Initiatives, and others.
The coalition is anchored by Oceankind and Builders Vision and
was designed to help tackle the global climate crisis through
coordination and collaboration within the ocean sector, a powerful
but often overlooked ally in the battle against climate change.
ORCA works with philanthropies, nonprofit organizations, local
communities, and Indigenous Peoples to make ocean ecosystems more
resilient and balanced and help ensure that solutions are just,
equitable, and center the frontline coastal communities that are
most impacted by ocean-climate issues. The now $300 million coalition will convene again at the
upcoming Our Ocean conference in Athens,
Greece to update the international community on its
efforts.
"Climate change certainly isn't the only threat facing our
ocean, but is a truly existential one. Likewise, while the ocean is
not the only source of solutions to address the climate crisis, it
includes many essential interventions, from decarbonizing
shipping to safeguarding blue carbon habitats. The fight against
climate change requires that every industry play a role, and
marine sectors are estimated to comprise up to a third of the
necessary emissions reductions. We're thrilled that the global
philanthropic community has begun to catalyze critical efforts in
this space," said Matt Elliott,
Executive Director of Oceankind and an anchor funder of
ORCA.
"Since ORCA'S launch at COP28,
we've brought on Dr. Harris to lead this incredible initiative,
secured an additional $50 million in
funding, and started distributing much-needed resources to
organizations who have the passion and expertise to drive
significant transformation for the ocean and climate," said
Peter Bryant, Oceans Program
Director at Builders Vision, one of ORCA's anchor funders.
"ORCA is truly a groundbreaking initiative that is catalyzing
capital into the blue economy, and we're looking forward to
continuing this great momentum."
"Bloomberg Philanthropies is thrilled to see such critical and
impactful developments at ORCA since launching just four months
ago," said Melissa Wright, who
leads the Bloomberg Ocean Initiative at Bloomberg
Philanthropies. "Investing in ocean-based solutions to fight
climate change is one of the most effective ways we can stabilize
our planet's equilibrium. With additional funding, an impressive
new cohort of grantees, and Dr. Al
Harris as ORCA's new Executive Director, we will be able to
spearhead ocean conservation at a more rapid pace. Bloomberg
Philanthropies is excited to help lead this effort through ORCA and
guide countries to meet their 30x30 targets."
Catalyzing Funding into Global Programs
ORCA is
injecting significant capital into seven core areas that focus on
mitigation, sequestration, or adaptation. The programs include
enhancing blue carbon habitat restoration and conservation,
bolstering ocean diplomacy, fielding ocean carbon research, and
empowering coastal communities to safeguard marine resources, among
others.
ORCA has identified lead grantees for each focus area that are
entrusted with advancing strategies and enlisting additional
partners to support these efforts. Some of these initial grantees
include:
- Oceans 5 will focus on bolstering strategic ocean
diplomacy for a unified ocean-climate agenda: "As the ocean
continues to get hotter and more acidic, sea levels rise, and
Arctic sea ice cover and glacial retreat continue at unprecedented
rates, world leaders are racing like never before to implement
ocean-based climate solutions," said Jean Flemma, Director, Ocean and Climate
Diplomacy Initiative for Oceans 5. "The surge of philanthropic
funding made available through the Ocean Resilience and Climate
Alliance is critical to advancing ocean climate action and ensuring
that governments, civil society, and communities on the frontlines
can work together to leverage the power of the ocean in the fight
against climate change."
- Oceans North will co-lead efforts to safeguard the
Arctic for the people, marine life, and global climate functions it
supports: "There are many threats facing the Arctic, but there is
also unprecedented global momentum to address the climate and
biodiversity crises—as well as growing recognition of the key role
that Indigenous Peoples can and must play in conservation," said
Louie Porta Executive Director of
Oceans North. "Funding from ORCA will help support existing
efforts to protect places that matter to people while catalyzing
new initiatives and approaches in some of the world's most
productive ecosystems."
- Conservation International will help build and implement
blue carbon positive business models that will increase the scale
and durability of restoration efforts: "Over the last few years,
the development of blue carbon as a solution for the climate,
biodiversity, and communities has reached a critical turning
point," said Dr. Emily Pidgeon,
Vice President, Ocean Science and Innovation at Conservation
International. "With the support of ORCA to launch the Blue
Carbon Plus initiative, we are now able to bring scalable models
that will allow this innovative approach to reach its full
potential along coasts globally."
- Blue Ventures will help advance the capacity of Global
South coastal communities to engage in climate solutions, protect
their security, and secure their tenure of marine resources: "For
the communities where we work, climate change is a real, present,
and intensifying threat to survival," said Sharon Young, Director of Partner Networks at
Blue Ventures. "The Frontline Community Fund is already driving
catalytic funding to dozens of local organizations on the
frontlines of the ocean emergency so that they can restore marine
life and safeguard livelihoods at scale."
For a full list of ORCA's seven focus areas and the lead
grantees for each, please see the table below or visit
www.oceanclimate.org.
ORCA Pillars and Focus Areas
Program
Pillar
|
Overview
|
Accelerating Offshore Wind Development Globally
|
Rapidly scaling
offshore wind has the potential to mitigate over 7 percent of all
emissions needed to stay below a 2°C of warming. To help ensure
that offshore wind meets its climate mitigation potential, Ocean
Energy Pathway and the Pooled fund on International
Energy will provide governments and domestic stakeholders with
locally tailored tools and practices to jump-start offshore wind.
In tandem, the Global Offshore Wind Alliance is bringing
together governments, the private sector, international
organizations to accelerate the global deployment of offshore wind
technologies, while the newly launched Global Initiative for
Nature, Grids, and Renewables seeks to develop a monitoring and
reporting framework to protect biodiversity while scaling
renewables.
|
Decarbonizing Global Shipping by Elevating Underrepresented Countries and Building Leadership in Asia
|
Global shipping
represents around 3% of global CO2 emissions; without intervention,
carbon emissions from shipping will further increase to 1.5 Gt
CO2e by 2050. To fight this dangerous trend, the UN
Foundation is working to elevate the voices of the Global South
at the International Maritime Organization, and ClimateWorks
Foundation is working to catalyze greater ambition for shipping
decarbonization in major Asian shipping nations.
|
Activating
Blue Carbon
Positive Business
Models
|
Coastal blue carbon
ecosystems store more carbon per area than nearly any other
ecosystem, but restoration projects are constrained and outpaced by
habitat loss. To expand the pipeline of habitat restoration and
conservation, The Nature Conservancy and Conservation
International are building and implementing new blue carbon
positive business models that promise to increase the scale and
durability of restoration efforts.
|
Advancing
Ocean Carbon
Sequestration
|
In theory, marine
carbon dioxide removal (mCDR) could potentially meet up to 80% of
the carbon removal capacity needed to stay well under 2°C of
warming, but the technologies need significant research and
development to explore their efficacy and limitations. To help
these methods reach their climate-fighting potential, the
Grantham Environmental Trust is leading a philanthropic push
to explore the potential of mCDR to catalyze the maturation of
ocean CDR R&D.
|
Safeguarding the
Arctic
|
As the fastest warming
ecosystem on Earth, the Arctic environment needs immediate
protection. New pressures from ship traffic, fishing, and
industrial development are mounting as summer sea ice could be
entirely gone by 2050. To better protect this ecosystem and its
critical role in earth's climate, Oceans North and Ocean
Conservancy will work with Indigenous organizations,
governments, coastal communities, and industry to secure increased
protections for the Arctic.
|
Scaling Community-Led Action in the Global South
|
Long-term and just
climate success requires robust support among the coastal
communities most affected by climate to lead and drive ocean-based
solutions forward. The Frontline Community Fund (Blue
Ventures) and the Marine Tenure Initiative will
collectively advance the capacity of Global South coastal
communities to engage in climate solutions, protect their security,
and secure their tenure of marine resources.
|
Elevating a
Unified Ocean-Climate Agenda through Strategic Diplomacy
|
Internationally, the
ocean-climate policy campaign space is fragmented, underfunded, and
overlooked relative to its impact potential. Oceans 5 will
be working to strengthen the voice of ocean-climate advocates
working across critical fora such as the UNFCCC and Our Oceans.
Oceans 5 will help to support and coordinate campaigns around our
shared ocean-climate agenda.
|
Media Inquiries:
Kathleen Strand, Head of
Communications
Builders Vision
kstrand@buildersvision.com
(847) 707-2891
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