"Blended finance is the strongest tool to accelerate the blue bond pipeline" (Alice Dellavalle)

Alice Dellavalle answers News Tank's questions

What single regulatory or governance reform would most unlock private capital for ocean-related projects today?

In my paper, I don’t argue that standardisation is absent, but rather that it needs to improve. Lessons from the more mature green bond market show that better standardisation directly enables smoother project development and issuance.

Sustainability bonds, green or blue, are bureaucratically complex. Issuers need:

• a large and credible project pipeline,
• clear KPIs and impact-assessment criteria,
• and often large financing volumes.

There is already a framework: ICMA (International Capital Markets Association) provides detailed guidance on how to issue nature-related bonds and which metrics to use. But this framework was written with green and social bonds in mind, so its blue-specific guidance has historically been insufficient.

This is now changing. The IFC (International Finance Corporation) published Blue Finance Guidelines in 2022, followed by an updated version in 2025, which significantly expands sector-specific guidance, from water and wastewater management to plastics and circularity, sustainable shipping and ports, aquaculture and fisheries, and ecosystem restoration.

These updated guidelines improve the KPIs used to evaluate blue projects, representing a real step forward in standardisation. This is essential because blue bonds apply across very different geographies: Nordic countries, Pacific islands, and more. Without uniform standards, comparing and assessing projects becomes even more complicated.

So, enhanced and more specific standardisation is the reform that would most unlock private capital.

What practical mechanisms do you see as most effective to de-risk these projects for institutional investors?

Risks stem from two main sources.

First, ocean ecosystems are far less understood than terrestrial ones. Monitoring the ocean is extremely difficult, which is why the EU is investing heavily in observation technologies, such as sensors, AUVs, ROVs, and in building a digital twin of the ocean to integrate and simulate this data. Because we know less, we have fewer metrics and less visibility on the impact of projects. That translates into higher uncertainty for investors.

When private capital enters, trust increases but blended finance helps bridge the early phase where risks are highest and revenues most uncertain.

This is especially true for conservation and restoration. For sectors like sustainable shipping or ports, impact assessment is easier, but the technologies involved are often not market-ready. Sustainable fuels, for example, lack supporting infrastructure and mature value chains.

Second, regulation historically overlooked the ocean. Green finance frameworks evolved with a land-based bias, forests, soils, carbon, which contributed to today’s blue finance gap. But this is now shifting, with more public funding and growing policy attention.

In this context, I believe blended finance is the most effective mechanism to de-risk projects. It aligns:

• public or philanthropic capital (grants, guarantees, concessional loans) to support early-stage technologies and help companies build confidence;
• private investment that brings scale and demonstrates market trust once the technology and business models mature.

When private capital enters, trust increases but blended finance helps bridge the early phase where risks are highest and revenues most uncertain.

So, for me, blended finance is the strongest tool to accelerate the blue bond pipeline and attract institutional investors.

Beyond finance and regulation, what operational barriers prevent ocean-related projects from scaling?

This is a major issue, and it’s not only about R&D. At Hub Azul, we work with the entire ecosystem: universities, large corporations, small start-ups, entrepreneurs, researchers. We try to understand the operational bottlenecks that slow innovation:

• not the obvious ones (bureaucracy, financing),
• but the concrete, day-to-day obstacles that block projects.

A good example is monitoring infrastructure. Underwater sensors degrade quickly in salt water. They require constant cleaning, removal, maintenance and reinstallation. This costs time, money, personnel and interrupts monitoring, meaning you lose continuous datasets that are essential for ocean projects.

Another example is access to infrastructure. Early-stage companies often cannot test solutions because they need access to:

• the sea itself,
• testing pools,
• dedicated marine research facilities.

Testing at sea is fundamentally different from testing on land. Most marine areas are not private property; they are state-owned or fall under international jurisdiction. So access is politically and logistically complex. This slows down innovation dramatically.

The ocean’s inherent complexity makes everything harder: projects need more time, more coordination, more infrastructure, and more maintenance than comparable land-based projects.

Building networks of shared infrastructure, simplifying access procedures, and supporting early testing would accelerate innovation. This would create:

• better technologies,
• more investable companies,
• and ultimately more attractive opportunities for investors.

What does the role of governments and international cooperation look like in practice?

Governments are essential. Not only to simplify local regulations for example, access to maritime infrastructure, but also because the ocean is one interconnected ecosystem. Water circulates globally. One country’s actions affect many others.

So cooperation is fundamental. A good example is the Pacific region’s blue/green bond initiative, which aggregates many small island states under a common ocean framework. These states are among the most vulnerable, and their cooperation strengthens both project pipelines and investor confidence.

Governments have a cascade effect:

• they can align institutions,
• create stable conditions for companies,
• reduce perceived risks,
• and support large project portfolios.

Blue bonds work best when institutional capacity is strong. Without aligned public institutions, it is almost impossible to scale blue finance. So public-private collaboration is not optional: it is a prerequisite.