Community-based initiatives to drive ocean economics forward and to have nature-based investments is a novel concept floated by Kerem Kolcuoglu, managing partner of Penrose Partners.

The local investment pool could then be floated in the international financial market. Educator refinanced $1.6 billion in national debt and seriously reduced debt costs by issuing Blue Bonds and Green Bonds, with savings funnelled into climate capital application projects. Bermuda could refinance and have the savings flow into a waste-energy system as part of the renewable energy transition.

Bermuda could provide leadership on the emerging Blue Bond funding mechanism, noted Paul Holthus, founding member and chief executive of the World Ocean Committee. Most funding requests for ocean projects are one-off bespoke projects. We need a standardised approach to be the global nexus for Blue Finance.

Cape Verde just issued a Blue Bond, reported Kevin Richards, of Bermuda Asset Management. The Bermuda Stock Exchange can be leveraged to stimulate the market. Bermuda has led the world in insurance-linked securities trading on the BSX.

Blue Bonds and carbon credit trading is a logical expansion. Carbon is trading at $3 to $120 per unit, Stan Stalnaker noted. Protecting a forest may earn $100 an acre in credit, which is less than what is gained by the exploitation of it.

Biodiversity credits to protect the variety of the Earth’s wildlife do not yet exist. There have been creative uses of carbon credits that result in the creation of national forests and parks. These are “debt for nature” swaps where the World Bank and other global financial institutions assume the debt in exchange for the green commitment.

Ongoing perpetual funds and rolling income for maintenance of the reserves need to be included. The value of the protection zone or sea-grass initiatives will have to be priced to be traded. Also, projects will have to demonstrate that they enhance the ocean and don’t acidify it.

The WOC is doing a lot of analysis on this subject. A particular type of algae growth test could be run here. There is a need for test bed sites for proving the science behind the concepts. Mr Richards is looking at floating solar. Meanwhile, Mr Holthus mentioned the importance of capturing wasted energy.

There is a duty to act as stewards of a significant part of the ocean. The Bermuda Ocean Prosperity Programme’s special plan includes land and ocean. The Ocean Fund will monetise the plan by raising two tranches of $25 million. There will be presentations on the plan and how it can be funded.

There have been years of research into the ocean surrounding Bermuda. There are real-world implications for any installation of potential solutions to the ocean crisis. The WOC funded a prototype project in Canary Islands for ocean-based solutions whereby they convert carbon dioxide to plankton by cycling water from 100 metres to the surface and sending the dead upper layer to the sea floor.

Can a financial “sandbox” for a Community Blue Fund be run here? Mr Kolcuoglu, from Penrose, suggested we identify five people with $10,000 each to create such a fund to pay young people to clean the beach or ocean, based the on weight collected. Take the evidence to the funder as a demonstrated impact.

How about local farming or mangrove and coral planning? For farming, the collectives that receive the funds could sell food back to the community. Let’s work on smaller projects that can be leveraged to obtain funding from the larger companies here for the Community Blue Fund.

• Patrice Horner, MBA is a European Financial Adviser who is interested in encouraging change to save the planet and our futures