Investments and Tech

What is blue technology?

And where are we with ocean sustainability

Blue Technology is the collective name for new technologies that aim to improve our relationship with the oceans around the planet. According to SeaSide Sustainability, Blue technologies are marine debris intervention devices that will help remove waste from our oceans, beaches, and waterways. These innovative devices and systems are designed to monitor and clean our oceans without harming marine ecosystems.

In 2021, the MIT Technology Review Insights Blue Technology Barometer called attention to a lack of investments to facilitate marine ecosystems’ decarbonization as well as land-based ones. The big challenges focus on marine conservation and climate mitigation in the oceans. The 27th COP in Egypt’s Sharm El-Sheik recently concluded with a significant agreement to create a dedicated fund and new financing mechanisms to compensate developing countries for loss and damage when they are affected by climate change. This has particular resonance for maritime economies that are hit by extreme ocean-borne weather events like hurricanes, or slow onset ones, like the world’s rising sea levels.

Blue technology refers to the set of systems that aim to improve our relationship with the oceans. As defined by SeaSide Sustainability, these devices are designed to monitor and clean the oceans without harming marine ecosystems.

In the 2021 rankings, all blue technology leaders were mature states with sophisticated economies that support technology-enabled ocean conservation and sustainability. The United Kingdom, for example, is considered to be a leader in blue technology development, although the country’s overall score dropped from 7.83 to 7.73. Japan moved from 11th place to ninth (with its score rising from 6.37 to 6.63), and the Netherlands jumped up three places to 10th (from 6.13 to 6.53).

To enable blue economy for longer-term success, big and multidisciplinary efforts are necessary. Many countries are trying to modify their maritime infrastructures, the EU decided to dedicate some of its resources to this sector, by financing the “Pelagos Blue Energy Cluster” platform for the Mediterranean and issuing a communication, titled “Blue Growth”, to plan a sustainable growth in the marine and maritime at European level.

Image from Unsplash.

The objective is the development of integrated maritime policy (oceanography, maritime planning and surveillance), by promoting a sustainable growth strategy, attentive to the different climatic, social, economic and cultural contexts of the various areas of the European coast and with specific interventions in various sectors, including aquaculture, coastal tourism, biotechnology, exploitation of ocean energy and blue energy.

Off-shore wind energy is becoming increasingly important. Norway (ranked 8th by MIT) is finalizing the construction of Hywind Tampen, the world’s biggest floating wind farm, based on 11 wind turbines with a capacity of 8,6 MW, that aims to produce 47% of the world’s floating wind capacity, and reduce the impact on ocean floors at the same time. 

As for all actions against climate change, innovations in our oceans are fundamental. Jyotika Virmani, Executive Director Schmidt Ocean Institute, a non-profit focused on advancing oceanographic research and knowledge, says scientific progress is becoming an increasingly powerful tool to understand and mitigate the effects of climate change on oceans.

Many countries are trying to change maritime infrastructure. The EU has funded the “Pelagos Blue energy cluster” platform for the Mediterranean and published “Blue Growth” to plan at the European level for sustainable growth of the marine and maritime sectors.

One is the use of eDNA, genetic material shed by organisms in the water environments. eDNA will be an effective tool for detection of aquatic invasive species and a better understanding of sea species in order to increase ocean sustainability. Together with temperature, salinity and oxygen measuring technologies, it will lead to a more thorough knowledge of what happens in ocean floors and allow answering crucial questions as, for example, the actual level of damage produced by microplastic in the ocean, or if specific fish stocks are in decline.

A high-impact will have also the Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030 project, with the aim to facilitate the complete mapping of the global ocean floor to a high resolution and that will enable to discover new parts of the planet in order to study, and most of all, protect them, by 2030.

31st January 2023