This note identifies pathways on how public-private partnerships (PPPs) could be used to mobilise finance under the BBNJ Agreement and in particular the potential role of the new BBNJ Agreement's special fund
Article 52 (8) specifies that financial resources in support of the implementation of the BBNJ Agreement may be mobilised from a wide variety of sources, including "public and private sources, both national and international, including, but not limited to, contributions from States, international financial institutions, existing funding mechanisms under global and regional instruments, donor agencies, intergovernmental organisations, non-governmental organisations and natural and juridical persons, and through public-private partnerships.”
Public-Private Partnerships are long-term, contractual cooperations between public authorities and private companies to design finance, build, and operate public infrastructure or services. They combine public responsibility with private expertise and capital toincrease efficiency.
Innovative finance in the context of the High Seas could support a range of PPP approaches, ranging from research and exploration to funding of monitoring activities in large ocean areas through range of remote sensing infrastructure. Attracting investment into these areas will require effective contractual arrangements and will benefit from risk mitigation tools.
This document has been prepared by the UNSW Centre for Sustainable Development Reform, as the Secretariat to the BBNJ Finance Advisory Group (Advisory Group). The Secretariat is grateful to the main author Torsten Thiele for writing this paper on behalf of the Advisory Group on BBNJ Finance. Further the Secretariat thanks the members of the Advisory Group, and additional Secretariat staff for their input, critical reviews, and helpful suggestions.
The Advisory Group consists of global experts serving in their personal capacity to provide thought leadership on innovative financial mechanisms for the implementation of the BBNJ Agreement.
Members of the Advisory Group contribute diverse perspectives to advance discussions and offer expert insights, but their participation does not constitute endorsement of all content. The opinions expressed in this note and other outputs, do not represent the official positions of any government, organisation, country, or member. This initiative is supported by the Bloomberg Ocean Initiative.