Key messages

1. The Nordic region’s ocean economy thrives on its diversity, and can improve its resilience through cross-border collaboration
   • Strengths in the Nordic ocean economy include Norway’s clusters in offshore energy, shipping, and seafood; Denmark’s leadership in offshore wind; Greenland, Iceland and the Faroe Islands in fisheries; Finland in Arctic technology; and Sweden in innovation.
   • Norway has the biggest ocean economy in the Nordics by value added and employment, due mainly to its advantages in offshore energy and seafood, but risks falling behind Denmark, Finland, and Sweden on research, development, and innovation in the economy at large.
   • Enhanced Nordic collaboration in the ocean economy can strengthen the region’s strategic position for European resilience in energy, food, and mineral supply chains, and in the maritime industry.
2. The Nordic ocean economy must develop future-proof strategies that are robust to uncertainties related to environmental sustainability, energy transition, national security, competitiveness, and economic growth
   • Aquaculture: Development of novel feeds can reduce reliance on imported ingredients, thereby minimizing the sector’s environmental footprint and reducing dependency on vulnerable global supply chains.
   • Offshore energy: New developments can enhance European energy security, with expansion of offshore wind directly contributing to reduced consumption of fossil fuels, and continued exports of offshore gas providing energy with a lower carbon footprint than gas imports.
   • Shipbuilding is essential for the functioning of the Nordic maritime clusters needed to retain competitiveness in knowledge-intensive service delivery in the maritime industry, and that will drive digital and low-carbon shipping.
3. Future development of the Nordic ocean economy requires reconciling ecological integrity and economic ambition
   • Nordic collaboration is needed to account for cross-border cumulative impacts on marine ecosystems when developing new ocean activities and managing existing ones.
   • Coastal communities are particularly at risk due to the importance of the seafood and tourism sectors in providing local livelihoods, and because of their dependency on ecosystem services.
   • Valuing ecosystem services: Stakeholders in the Nordic economy need to conceptualize the valuation of ecosystem services for these to be included in strategic economic development.
4. The Nordics are ready to lead in ocean innovation, leveraging digitalization, circularity, and cross-sector knowledge transfers
   • Development of digital solutions is needed to realize the full productivity growth potential and strengthen the competitiveness of the seafood, maritime, offshore, and tourism sectors.
   • Growth in the economic productivity of the Nordic ocean economy will be critical to tackle the dual challenge of an aging population and deliver on the transition to low-carbon solutions in the ocean sectors.
   • The energy transition requires reducing offshore oil and gas, among the biggest contributors to economic value added from the Nordic ocean economy, hinting at the huge challenge of transitioning to offshore renewables.
   • Knowledge transfers from offshore oil and gas are essential to drive forth new initiatives in the ocean economy, such as offshore wind, low-carbon offshore technologies, and aquaculture.