Over the last two years, a positive wave of ocean action has been sweeping the planet. Its momentum offers the most powerful opportunity in recent memory to improve humanity’s relationship with the ocean.

The ocean hosts 95% of the planet’s life; it also absorbs 93% of its excess heat and about 30% of human-generated carbon dioxide. The ocean produces more than half of the oxygen on the planet. In fact, just one little photosynthetic creature in the ocean, the Prochlorococcus, provides 20% of the oxygen in Earth’s biosphere.

The development of a sustainable ocean economy includes a myriad of climate adaptation and mitigation opportunities. For example, by protecting and restoring blue carbon ecosystems like mangrove forests, seagrasses, and coral reefs, we can…