The Oceans & Climate Explained (and Why it Matters to Finance)

Hear from Julie Pullen, a leading expert in ocean-atmosphere interactions, on how our oceans are being affected by climate change, what we stand to lose, and how we can restore them whilst building resilience.

The world’s oceans are critical to all life on Earth. They have also buffered us against the worst impacts of climate change, absorbing about a third of all of our carbon emissions, and around 90% of the temperature increase from global warming. However, ocean ecosystems are undergoing huge changes, and if we don’t act soon, we may lose the many benefits that oceans bring to our economies and societies.  In this episode, we will explore:

• The wide range of impacts that climate change and environmental degradation have on the world’s oceans
• How changes in our oceans and ocean ecosystems become risks in our economies and societies
• The proliferation of blue carbon projects, and how they preserve the benefits of the oceans while tackling climate change

We learn that there are increasingly effective channels for financial institutions to intervene in the degradation of the oceans, whilst building resilience to climate risk.

Links from today’s discussion:

• Julie’s article on the connection between climate risk and climate solutions: https://sustainablebrands.com/read/defining-the-next-economy/how-climate-risk-can-inform-climate-solutions
• Julie’s marine oxygen story in Scientific American: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/marine-oxygen-levels-are-the-next-great-casualty-of-climate-change/
• National Academy of Sciences Ocean CDR report: https://www.nationalacademies.org/our-work/a-research-strategy-for-ocean-carbon-dioxide-removal-and-sequestration
• WEF Ocean Resource page: https://www.weforum.org/friends-of-ocean-action/mangroves-working-group
• Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s sustained research the "twilight zone": https://twilightzone.whoi.edu/
• Blue Carbon Buyers Alliance: https://scalingclimatesolutions.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Blue-Carbon-Buyers-Alliance.pdf
• Open Source-Climate: https://os-climate.org/

Julie Pullen is a climate scientist specializing in ocean-atmosphere interactions, and serves on the Executive Committee of the American Meteorological Society. As a former engineering professor, she has held leadership roles in academia, government, non-profit organizations, and the private sector.

Julie is an Adjunct Research Scientist at Columbia’s Earth Institute, and up until recently was a Climate Strategist at Jupiter Intelligence. She’s now embarking on a new venture in ocean climate tech. She is also a member of the GARP Advisory Committee for our very own Sustainability and Climate Risk Certificate.