CERF 2025 Keynote 

Sunday, 9 November 2025 | 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM ET

Blue Natural Capital is the New Real State: a Business Case for Investing in Our Estuaries’ Blue Natural Capital

Hear Carlos Duarte explain how the concept of blue carbon, an assets widespread in estuaries and coasts, represents the first time that a marine ecosystem service is monetized and invested upon in financial markets, breaking through the extractive relation of most nations with the ocean. However, blue carbon is just an intermediate station toward developing blue natural capital as a new, investable, asset class, that rebuild our oceans while addressing some of the present challenges of our times. I would elaborate in the state of this topic and the pending hurdles that remain to realize this new approach that breaks away with the tragedy of the commons responsible for the decline of our estuaries and coasts.

About the Presenter

Carlos Duarte

Ibn Sina Distinguished Professor of Marine Science, Carlos M. Duarte, is the Tarek Ahmed Juffali Research Chair in Red Sea Ecology at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), in Saudi Arabia, Executive Director of the Global Coral R&D Accelerator Platform, and Chief Scientist of Oceans2050, The Wave, Ocean us, E1Series and Blue Green Futures. Before this was Director of the Oceans Institute at The University of Western Australia and held positions in Spain, Norway and Denmark. Duarte’s research focuses on the effects of global change in marine ecosystems and developing nature-based solutions to global challenges, including climate change, and evidence-based strategies to rebuild the abundance of marine life by 2050.

Building on his research showing mangroves, seagrasses and salt-marshes to be globally-relevant carbon sinks, he developed, working with different UN agencies, the concept of Blue Carbon, as a nature-based solution to climate change. He has conducted research across all continents and oceans, organisms and ecosystem types. Professor Duarte has published more than 1.000 scientific papers and has been ranked as the top marine biologist and the 12th most influential climate scientist in the world (Reuters). Duarte was co-editor in chief of Estuaries, later Estuaries and Coasts, and an ex oficio CERF board member while holding that role.