A groundbreaking digital platform designed to reshape global investment in coastal climate solutions has been unveiled by The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in partnership with Vizzuality and Bain & Company. The Blue Carbon Cost Tool (BCCT) offers researchers, NGOs, policymakers and investors an unprecedented look into the financial and environmental landscape of blue-carbon projects.
The interactive tool catalogs options such as mangrove restoration, tidal-marsh conservation and seagrass recovery, providing users with estimated project development costs, potential revenue from carbon credits and an assessment of where restoration work is most urgently needed.
TNC says the BCCT will fundamentally shift how blue-carbon projects are financed. By giving stakeholders reliable cost and return estimates from the outset, the tool helps build confidence—often the missing ingredient in large-scale nature-based investment. It also allows users to input local project data, ensuring the platform continuously adapts to real-world changes.
Why Blue Carbon Matters
Oceans hold around 80% of the planet’s life, and their coastal ecosystems—mangroves, marshes and seagrasses—are some of the most powerful natural climate buffers. Though they occupy only about 2% of Earth’s surface, these habitats store carbon at rates comparable to or greater than many land-based forests.
Mangroves shelter hundreds of billions of young fish and marine species. Seagrass meadows absorb carbon at remarkable speed. Marshes act as natural coastal defenses, reducing incoming wave energy by as much as half across short distances.
Yet these ecosystems are vanishing. Coastal wetlands are being lost faster than they can be restored. Nearly one-third of seagrass meadows have disappeared in the past century, and half of the world’s mangroves could collapse by mid-century. As these habitats decline, the long-stored carbon they hold escapes back into the atmosphere—an estimated one billion metric tons every year.
A Tool to Bridge the Investment Gap
Jennifer Morris, CEO of The Nature Conservancy, says the BCCT addresses one of the biggest obstacles in blue-carbon finance: uncertainty.
“Transparent, science-based data is essential,” she said. “The Blue Carbon Cost Tool strengthens trust from the beginning, paving the way for investments at the scale we urgently need.”
While high-quality carbon markets have the potential to jump from today’s $1–2 billion range into tens of billions by 2030, blue-carbon projects have long struggled to attract funding. They often face high startup costs—permits, community engagement, long-term monitoring and complex site preparation—making them difficult to initiate without reliable pricing and risk data.
Industrial carbon-capture technologies continue to draw investment despite offering narrow climate benefits. In contrast, blue-carbon projects support biodiversity, protect coastlines, strengthen fisheries and provide economic stability to nearby communities—yet they remain underfunded.
The BCCT aims to change that by showing investors exactly what drives project costs and how pricing can be set fairly and transparently. By doing so, TNC hopes to end the pattern in which communities and NGOs must cover cost gaps left by underpriced carbon credits.
Building Trust—and Markets—From the Ground Up
One of the most persistent problems in voluntary carbon markets is the disconnect between investors and project developers. BCCT reduces this gap by laying out clear, data-driven financial information so all parties start with a shared understanding.
Advocates say the tool could accelerate the development of high-integrity coastal projects worldwide, enabling carbon markets to better reflect the true cost of protecting ecosystems that are irreplaceable in the fight against climate change.
