Foreword

The drive to develop sustainable blue economies and preserve marine, coastal and freshwater ecosystems is accelerating thanks to a number of major global commitments, including the Paris Agreement on climate change, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, the United Nations (UN) 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals and the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030). However, despite numerous declarations, statements, principles and communications around the blue economy in recent years, a significant gap remains in addressing the territorial and water security aspects. Subnational governments typically have responsibilities in urban and regional planning, water and sanitation, waste management and climate resilience. Nevertheless, existing national blue economy strategies often lack a territorial approach that would leverage the role of subnational governments to integrate place-based considerations. Additionally, water security is a blind spot of national and subnational blue economy policy: only a few blue economy strategies consider the consequences of water risks on economies and people’s wellbeing.

This report aims to bridge this gap by addressing these two dimensions. Regarding the territorial dimension, the report highlights the critical policy, spending and investment prerogatives of subnational governments in unlocking the potential of the blue economy to create value and jobs at the local level. Regarding the water security dimension, it underlines that saltwater and freshwater are intrinsically connected through the global water cycle, calling for a “whole of water” approach that fosters water security for thriving blue economies.

Drawing on over 80 responses to the OECD Global Survey on Localising the Blue Economy, the report achieves several objectives. First, it expands the conversation from ocean-based industries and marine ecosystems to incorporate the costs, benefits and practices of freshwater-based industries and ecosystems, thereby moving from the “ocean” to the “blue” economy. Second, the report delves into the multi-level governance of the blue economy. Third, it sets out a framework for building blue economies that are resilient, inclusive, sustainable and circular (RISC-proof) and suggests ways forward related to the design, coherence and implementation of blue economy strategies. The report concludes with a RISC Assessment Framework, a tool designed to help cities and regions self-evaluate their blue economies’ resilience, inclusiveness, sustainability and circularity and the enabling governance conditions.

This work is a contribution to the OECD Programme on Cities and Regions for a Blue Economy, as part of the OECD-wide work on the ocean economy. The report leverages insights from the OECD Water Governance Programme, notably the OECD Principles on Water Governance, which provide 12 must-dos for governments to design and implement effective, efficient and inclusive water policies. It also draws on broader OECD work on urban policy and multi-level governance carried out by the Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities (CFE).

Earlier versions of this report were presented at the 30^th and 31^st sessions of the OECD Working Party on Urban Policy (WPURB) in May and November 2022 respectively. Revised versions were presented at the 18^th and 19^th meetings of the OECD Water Governance Initiative in July 2023 and March 2024 respectively. Preliminary survey results were presented at COP 27 (November 2022, Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt), Tomorrow.Oceans (November 2022, Barcelona, Spain), InnovAzul (December 2022, Cadiz, Spain), the World Ocean Summit (February 2023, Lisbon, Portugal), Green Rio (September 2023, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) and Tomorrow.BlueEconomy at the Smart City Expo World Congress (November 2023, Barcelona, Spain). Twenty profiles of cities, regions and basins based on survey responses were launched at the UN 2023 Water Conference (March 2023, New York City, United States) alongside the New York City Multi-Stakeholder Pledge on Localising the Blue Economy.

Delegates of the WPURB approved the report by written procedure under cote [CFE/RDPC/URB(2024)3] on 3 April 2024.