In this Q&A, Pedro Bobião, Managing Director of Vide de Grunwald, explores how sustainable ocean-based industries can reduce emissions, protect marine ecosystems and drive the transition to a resilient blue economy through responsible investment, innovation and effective environmental governance.
Q: How can a more sustainable approach to ocean and sea-based economies lead to reductions in emissions?
A: By improving how the whole chain works. More fuel-efficient ships and fishing boats help reduce emissions, but so do better logistics, cleaner energy and reducing product losses along the supply chain.
Protecting mangroves, seagrass and other coastal habitats also preserves carbon stocks. That responsibility should not depend on a financial return.
Shipping produces around 3 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, making vessel efficiency, fuels with lower lifecycle emissions and port electrification important areas for action.
Take seafood. If part of the harvest never reaches the market, the energy used to produce, process and transport it has been wasted. Using processing by-products can improve resource efficiency, provided there is a buyer and a genuine environmental benefit.
This is one reason I develop clusters. They make it possible to identify where resources are being lost along the supply chain and bring together the businesses and investments needed to address those gaps. A technology company needs an industrial partner. A processor needs reliable supply and customers. Shared infrastructure needs enough users to sustain it.
We still need to measure results. Lower emissions per tonne are useful, but total emissions matter too. Calling an activity “blue” tells us very little about either.
Q: What tools are available for governments seeking to ensure ocean preservation and environmental health? Are there policies that have been successful in pioneering countries that can be adopted more broadly?
A: Governments have tools: marine spatial planning, protected areas, fisheries controls, pollution standards and environmental assessment. The difficult part is giving institutions the resources and continuity to make them work.
International rules are also advancing. The High Seas Treaty entered into force in January 2026, and the WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies in September 2025. Both add legal instruments; implementation will decide their value.
Seychelles has zoned its ocean territory and designated 30 percent for marine protection, supported in part by a debt-for-nature conversion. In the United States, NOAA’s 2024 report records 51 fish stocks rebuilt since 2000 under a system of scientific assessment, catch limits and corrective action. Both approaches require continued management. A designation or a recovery milestone does not finish the job.
I would also look closely at how public money is spent. Before financing a facility, establish who will use it, who will operate it and who will pay for maintenance. Otherwise, we risk building infrastructure without the conditions to keep it working.
Clusters can connect public investment to the needs of companies and research institutions. They can organise shared services, training and projects that help businesses meet environmental requirements.
That needs professional management and responsibility for delivery. Regulators must retain independent oversight. Supporting an industry also means ensuring that it can operate within environmental limits.
Q: How can offshore wind replace oil and natural gas extraction in deep sea areas? Can existing oil and natural gas infrastructure be adapted for new uses such as offshore carbon storage?
A: Offshore wind can replace some fossil-fuel use through electricity generation and electrification. How far that goes depends on grids, demand and the wider energy system. Putting turbines offshore does not automatically replace oil and gas extraction.
Floating wind makes deeper-water projects possible, provided the wind resource, grid connection and economics are suitable.
For established offshore regions, an important opportunity is the industrial capability already there: engineering companies, marine services, ports and experienced workers.
A cluster can help those businesses understand what new developers need and prepare to supply it. Training matters, but companies also need contracts. That is what sustains jobs.
Some physical assets can also find new uses. Porthos in the Netherlands has converted former gas production wells for CO₂ injection into depleted fields. Northern Lights in Norway is already storing CO₂ in a saline aquifer.
Reuse must be assessed asset by asset. Existing infrastructure can have value, but its integrity, environmental suitability and long-term liabilities need to be established. The full capture, transport and storage chain must also demonstrate a net emissions benefit.
The practical task is to identify which suppliers can compete in new markets, which assets justify adaptation and which should be safely decommissioned.
Q: What are the biggest existing threats to the health of oceans and seas, and what tools are currently in place for mitigation and protection?
A: Climate change, overexploitation, pollution and habitat destruction are the main threats. They reinforce one another, so protecting a site while pressures around it continue will only achieve so much.
Much of the work also starts inland. Wastewater, agricultural runoff and poorly managed waste reach the sea through rivers and coastal systems. Ocean protection therefore involves decisions across the wider economy.
We have tools, including fishing regulation, protected areas, wastewater treatment, monitoring and restoration. Internationally, MARPOL limits pollution from ships and the London Protocol restricts dumping at sea. All of these need people, operating budgets and institutions able to respond. A sensor is useful only if somebody acts on what it detects.
Clusters can help where businesses share a resource and face pressures they cannot address individually. In aquaculture, coordinated monitoring and research can support better decisions and investment. Companies benefit from cooperation, while authorities remain responsible for environmental limits and enforcement.
For investors, this belongs in due diligence. Water quality and ecosystem deterioration affect production, costs and business continuity. A financial model that ignores those dependencies gives an incomplete picture of the investment.
