The ocean offers some of our most powerful opportunities to tackle climate change. Research shows that action across seven ocean sectors — from tourism to conservation to shipping — could provide over a third of the emissions cuts needed to reach global climate goals, while also supporting jobs, health and economic growth. These solutions are ready to implement and economically viable today.
Leaders increasingly recognize this. WRI analyzed new national climate commitments (known as “nationally determined contributions” or “NDCs”) submitted in 2025 by coastal and island nations. We found that more of these countries are incorporating ocean-based actions into their climate plans than ever before, marking a major step forward.
Yet a closer look reveals that the actions with the most potential to reduce emissions and generate new economic opportunity — including transitioning away from offshore oil and gas, decarbonizing shipping and aquatic food systems, and scaling up offshore renewable energy — are still missing from many countries’ commitments.
Closing these gaps will be critical. With the world already bumping up against 1.5 degrees C of warming and disasters rapidly intensifying, countries must pursue every avenue, including ocean-based solutions, to meet their climate goals.
Here, we explore six key trends that show where countries are focusing their ocean efforts — and where the biggest untapped opportunities lie.
1) More Countries Are Putting the Ocean in Their Climate Plans
Under the Paris Agreement, countries are required to submit new national climate commitments every five years. Each round is meant to be more ambitious than the last.
There have been three NDC cycles so far, with each bringing more attention to ocean-based solutions. In 2015, 62% of NDCs included at least one ocean-related climate action. This increased to 73% in 2022. Of the 66 coastal and island nations that had submitted new and updated NDCs as of our analysis (Nov. 6, 2025), more than 90% included at least one ocean action. This signals an important shift in awareness and political attention.
However, these plans are unevenly spread. The majority of NDCs include only one or two of the five ocean sub-sectors we evaluated: ocean-based renewable energy, ocean-based transport, coastal and marine conservation, fisheries and aquaculture, and marine and coastal tourism. This suggests countries are leaving much of the ocean’s potential on the table.
2) Countries Are Mainly Focused on Ocean Conservation and Climate Adaptation
Ocean action continues to center around conservation and climate resilience. The majority of island and coastal countries include adaptation commitments focused on conserving and restoring coastal and marine ecosystems. Many also include measures to support climate-resilient fisheries and aquaculture.
Types of Climate Action
Climate action is often grouped into two categories: Mitigation efforts aim to reduce or prevent greenhouse gas emissions to slow the pace of climate change, while adaptation efforts seek to reduce harm from climate impacts that are already here or expected in the future. “Resilience” refers to the ability of communities, ecosystems and economies to withstand, recover from and adapt to climate-related shocks.
This focus on adaptation is both important and appropriate. Many coastal and island nations — especially in sub-Saharan Africa, Oceania, Latin America and the Caribbean — are highly exposed to climate impacts like sea-level rise and storms. Healthy coastal ecosystems can help buffer against these impacts while also sustaining local industries, like tourism and fisheries, that are inherently linked to the ocean.
The Federated States of Micronesia, for example, includes 43 ocean-based actions in its NDC. Forty of them focus on adaptation. Of those, 30 center on restoring and protecting marine ecosystems, such as mangroves, in order to reduce risks from sea level rise, erosion, salt-water intrusion and storm surge.
Adaptation also dominates ocean-related tourism commitments. And it features in a growing number of transport strategies, particularly efforts to climate-proof ports and other critical infrastructure.
This trend toward adaptation is reflected at the global level as well. The 2025 UN climate summit (COP30) focused heavily on adaptation and recognized that many climate impacts are now unavoidable — especially for coastal and island nations that must adapt infrastructure and industries to a changing climate.
However, while the new NDCs underscore the ocean’s central role in building resilience, they also reveal a persistent imbalance: When it comes to the ocean, action to adapt to climate change is advancing faster than action to mitigate it, leaving deep emissions reductions untapped.
2) Commitments to Cut Emissions Are Largely Missing
Across the NDCs we reviewed, ocean sectors with the greatest potential to cut emissions — including offshore energy, maritime transport and aquatic food systems — were only sparsely represented. Marine conservation and maritime transport were the most common areas targeted for mitigation.
Global shipping is responsible for about 3% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions and is critical to every country’s trade and economy. But while roughly half (32) of the NDCs we reviewed include commitments to related to shipping (including action in ports, the development of alternative fuels, or stronger incentives and regulations), these skewed heavily toward adaptation, particularly in Oceania. The most significant trade-, tax- and investment-related actions came from the EU.
Fourteen countries explicitly reference ocean renewable energy in their NDCs, and only 4 detail specific plans or targets for offshore wind or other marine-based technologies. While this number remains small, offshore wind is a relatively new sector, and its inclusion represents progress. One positive example comes from Brazil, which has committed to advancing its energy transition and plans to establish a legal framework for offshore wind energy production.
There’s also potential to cut emissions through ocean-based food. One opportunity lies in shifting diets toward sustainably sourced seafood, which has much lower emissions than many other protein options. Another is reducing emissions from fishing vessels, processing facilities and transport. Yet NDC commitments in the sector, too, remain focused on adaptation. Mexico’s NDC offers an example for how to strike a balance between adaptation and mitigation, with measures to build sustainable fisheries and food security alongside measures to conserve fuel, reduce food loss and waste, and advance the vessel decarbonization.
4) No Country Has Committed to Phasing Out Offshore Oil and Gas
No country of those analyzed in our report has put forward measures to phase out or phase down offshore oil and gas in its NDC — even though this sector could reduce 5.3 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per year. This would be equivalent to eliminating the U.S. and Canada’s annual emissions combined.
In fact, the sector has entered a new phase of expansion. The International Energy Agency projects offshore oil and gas will grow by about 8% over the next decade, entering new geographies as climate leadership falters and countries shift toward energy and trade security. The International Energy Agency stated that no amount of new extraction is compatible with reaching global temperature goals, yet new fields are currently being scoped across Latin America and Africa.
5) Countries Need More Support to Leverage Ocean Solutions
Many sectors and technologies that can tap the ocean’s climate change-fighting potential — such as alternatives shipping fuels and the technology underpinning offshore wind and grid connectivity — are still relatively new or in development. There can be a steep technical and financial curve to adopt them.
Requests submitted through the NDC Partnership suggest that many governments are still at an early stage of understanding how the ocean can contribute to climate mitigation. Requests are often made by developing and emerging economies to inform policy decisions. However, given the novelty of some ocean technologies, all nations may grapple with financing and policy barriers.
Countries most often ask for help with foundational studies, data collection and stakeholder engagement. This reflects persistent knowledge gaps. Baseline data on ocean emissions pathways, mitigation potential, and socioeconomic impacts and opportunities remains limited, making it difficult for countries to design robust targets and deploy solutions confidently.
Financing is another major bottleneck. Few countries have access to targeted support for developing ocean-sector investment plans or implementation and finance strategies. Without these enabling conditions, even well-articulated ambitions risk remaining on paper.
Colombia’s new NDC tackles this challenge head-on by pairing ocean-based actions with clearly articulated “support needs” across four areas: climate finance, capacity building, technology, and planning and governance. On climate finance, for example, it highlights the need to combine national and international investments to support mangrove management and restoration and strengthen coastal adaptation planning. For technology, it emphasizes the need for satellite-based monitoring and improved modelling of coastal risk scenarios. Spelling these types of requirements out sends an important signal that ambition alone will not translate to results without the right support systems.
6) Recognition of Equity Has Grown, but Is Still Too Low
Coastal and island nations are disproportionately exposed to climate risks. As countries increasingly look to the ocean for solutions, it’s critical that these actions respond to the needs of those most affected by climate change, including low-lying coastal populations, women, youth, Indigenous Peoples and other local communities.
COP30 brought renewed political attention to equity — most visibly through the first Global Ethical Stocktake, which brings forward an equitable, just and people-centered approach to future NDCs. But this momentum is not yet fully reflected in national climate plans.
Only a small share of ocean-based actions explicitly recognize issues of inclusion, fair treatment, or the needs of groups facing heightened vulnerability. Where equity does appear, it is most common in parts of Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean. For example, the Maldives is expanding financial protections for coastal communities through parametric insurance for smallholders, strengthening national insurers, and improving climate data systems.
Overall, far more attention is needed to ensure that ocean-based climate action supports just outcomes for those most at risk.
Delivering on Ocean Ambition
These findings point to a clear conclusion: The ocean is no longer absent from national climate conversations. But it is still not fully harnessed as a suite of climate solutions, nor well represented in the broader UN climate agenda.
This is partly a question of ambition. But it’s also a question of resources. Even when they want to act, many countries lack the institutional capacity, resources and financing to make ambitious ocean action feasible.
Moving forward, four key actions will be critical to better leveraging the ocean’s potential:
- Advanced economies must continue to create and implement ambitious ocean-related NDC targets that deliver significant emissions reductions.
- Financial and technical support pathways must be established to help developing and emerging economies build institutional capacity to design and deliver ocean actions that cut emissions while supporting development goals (including jobs, economic growth and food security).
- All island and coastal nations must produce robust implementation plans for their national climate commitments (NDCs) and national adaptation plans (NAPs). These should expand upon ocean commitments and provide greater clarity on how they will mobilize investment and support.
- As countries prepare the next round of NDCs, due in 2030, there is a narrow but consequential window to move beyond symbolic inclusion toward transformative action. This will in part be contingent on demonstrating that support for the delivery of the emerging NDCs will be available through initiatives like the Blue NDC Taskforce.
Unlocking the ocean’s climate potential will require sharper mitigation targets; stronger links between adaptation and economic development; and greater investment in data, governance and equitable implementation. With this, the ocean could move from being a peripheral consideration to a central driver of climate ambition.
