Oceans and Coastal Ecosystems at New York Climate Week
Luz Gil, The Nature Conservancy
Oceans and coastal ecosystems were high on the agenda throughout New York Climate Week, reflecting growing momentum around ocean-based climate action and a clear focus on the road to COP31. Across events, a consistent message emerged: the importance of the ocean for climate, biodiversity, and coastal resilience is increasingly recognized, but the priority now is to translate that ambition into implementation and investment.
This focus is expected to carry into COP31, with Oceans and Seas identified as a priority and strong Pacific leadership bringing particular attention to ocean and coastal resilience.
Several events throughout the week focused on what it will take to move from ambition to implementation. The Mangrove Breakthrough’s flagship event, Rooted in Resilience, highlighted progress toward its finance goals and efforts to build the market architecture needed to connect mangrove projects with capital. Discussions pointed to a growing pipeline of mangrove-positive investments, increasing public-sector support, and greater engagement from financial institutions, while recognizing that investment will need to accelerate significantly to achieve the Breakthrough’s 2030 targets. Fiji’s COP31 Special Envoy also brought an important Pacific perspective, highlighting the role of mangroves in coastal resilience and the opportunity to carry this momentum toward COP31.
TNC and partners also convened two sessions at the Nature Hub that explored the connection between coastal resilience, locally led solutions, and finance. The first session, Investing in Coastal Resilience and Nature-Based Solutions, focused on practical approaches to scaling coastal nature-based solutions and overcoming barriers to finance. Speakers explored community- and Indigenous-led stewardship, blue carbon and wetland restoration, green-grey infrastructure, offshore wind synergies, and innovative approaches such as insurance for nature to strengthen the resilience of coastal ecosystems and communities.
The afternoon plenary at the Nature Hub, One Ocean, One Climate: Building Synergies across Ocean, Climate, and Biodiversity Frameworks for a Stronger Nature Economy, broadened the discussion to the global ocean-climate agenda and the pathway toward COP31. Pacific leaders and ocean experts discussed priorities for COP31 and the importance of translating international ambition into locally led implementation. A second panel focused on closing the gap between ambition and investment, highlighting approaches to build investable ocean projects, strengthen workforce and delivery capacity, scale blue carbon-positive business models, mobilize nature finance, and ensure that capital reaches frontline communities.
The pathway to COP31 was a strong theme across other high-level discussions. The COP30 Presidency of Brazil and COP31 Presidencies of Türkiye and Australia convened a high-level roundtable, From Belém to Fiji and Antalya: Accelerating Blue Climate Solutions on the Road to COP31, to consider how initiatives including the Global Climate Action Agenda, Ocean Breakthroughs, Blue NDC Challenge, ocean-climate finance, and national and regional priorities can reinforce one another ahead of the Pre-COP in Fiji and COP31 in Antalya. Similarly, a roundtable focused on the Marine Conservation Breakthroughs highlighted opportunities to integrate coral reef, mangrove, seagrass, salt marsh, and kelp forest targets into NDCs and national policies, mobilize finance, and move toward more integrated approaches across connected seascapes. The event also identified opportunities to carry policy priorities, partnerships, and financing solutions from New York to COP31 in Antalya, reinforcing the focus on implementation and delivery of ocean-based climate solutions.
Overall, NYCW showed strong momentum around oceans and coastal ecosystems, but also a noticeable evolution in the conversation: from making the case for ocean-climate action to delivering at scale. Across the week, implementation, finance, locally led action, and stronger alignment between global initiatives and national priorities emerged as key themes that are likely to continue shaping the ocean agenda on the road to COP31.
