A new OECD report on “The Ocean Economy to 2050” begins its “Executive Summary” in this way:
The ocean covers 71% of Earth’s surface, comprises 90% of the biosphere, provides food security for over three billion people, enables the transportation of over 80% of global goods, and hosts sea cables carrying 98% of international Internet traffic. … If considered a country, the ocean economy would be the world’s fifth-largest economy in 2019. From 1995 to 2020, it contributed 3% to 4% of global gross value added (GVA) and employed up to 133 million full-time equivalents (FTEs). The global ocean economy doubled in real terms in 25 years from USD 1.3 trillion of GVA in 1995 to USD 2.6 trillion in 2020, growing at an annual average rate of 2.8%.
Unsurprisingly, the growth in the ocean economy has mainly been in east Asia in the last 25 years or so, and is related to the rapid growth of China’s economy during that time. I was struck by this breakdown of the ocean-related economy by industry:
The report goes into some depth in analyzing various factors that will affect the future course of the ocean economy: population, environmental, legal, energy demand, technological, and others. It’s striking to me that the top industry on the list is marine and coastal tourism.As I read through the report, one key tradeoff for the ocean economy will be over environmental protections. Future success for some of these industries–tourism, fishing–depend heavily on environmental protections, while others like offshore oil/gas or overfishing pose enviromental dangers.
But more broadly, it feels to me as if thinking of the ocean as an economy can conceal as much as it reveals. For example, the economic function of ports and ship-building is different from the issues raised by freedom of the seas for shipping and by national defense. The importance of undersea data connections and ocean shipping in the global economy is connected to the gains they bring to users–not just the amount that is paid to the providers.
