Kobe is best known as a vibrant port city and gateway to Japan’s global connections. Beyond its bustling harbors, the city is also pioneering blue carbon and sustainable finance initiatives that hold lessons well beyond its shores.  

On 26 September 2025, Kobe welcomed three winners of the ASEAN Blue Innovation Challenge (ABIC) who are working on blue carbon conservation projects in their countries for a full-day knowledge exchange.  The event, hosted by the Kobe City Government and supported by UNDP Indonesia in partnership with ASEAN and funded by the Government of Japan, offered a window into how Japan is advancing solutions that restore ocean health while unlocking new opportunities for financing.

The visit preceded the ASEAN Blue Carbon and Finance Profiling (ABCF) Project’s “Exploring Innovative Financing Solutions for Blue Ecosystem Restoration Projects" workshop at the ASEAN Pavilion at Expo 2025, Osaka, Kansai, Japan. More than a study tour, Kobe became a living classroom where participants could witness the powerful combination of science, community action, and finance in building resilient blue economies. It offered the ABIC winners a rare opportunity to see how government, private sector, and community stakeholders in Japan are advancing blue carbon solutions and financing models that can inspire approaches across ASEAN.  

Opening the program, Mr. Hiromitsu Nakanishi, representing Kobe City Government, shared how the city integrates biodiversity and climate action into development planning. Its Zero Carbon Subsidy Program incentivizes citizen-led initiatives, while the J-Blue Credit system demonstrates how restoring seaweed and seagrass can generate tradable credits, transforming nature into an economic ally. These approaches showed how local governments can anchor big ideas like climate action in practical policies that empower people.

Japan’s private sector and civil society also showcased their contributions. Bluable, a start-up under Fujitsu’s Innovation Circuit, introduced its seaweed restoration kit, currently tested at 16 undersea sites across Japan. Meanwhile, the Suma Satoumi Association presented grassroots efforts in seagrass transplantation, seaweed cultivation, and coastal education, showing how communities can become custodians of marine ecosystems and active partners in conservation.

The three ABIC winners - Ms. Khairunnisa Ash’ari from Green Brunei, Mr. Soe Min from Myanmar’s Ecosystem Conservation and Community Development Initiative, and Mr. Marcos Da Silva Ramos from Netil in Timor-Leste-are leading blue carbon initiatives in their home countries. For them, the visit was an opportunity to learn how innovative financing strategies are applied in practice and supported through multi- stakeholder collaboration.

Ms. Ash’ari reflected, “The visit demonstrated the role that government, academic institutions and community can play in conserving our environment and promoting blue economy. It had been eye opening on how each agency has addressed the individual problems using local knowledge and academic research.”

The Kobe visit also carried deeper significance for the regional journey that UNDP has been supporting. Under the ASEAN Blue Economy Innovation project, which concluded in March 2025, UNDP and ASEAN nurtured 60 innovators from across ten ASEAN countries and Timor-Leste. Many of these innovators are now advancing their projects in their own communities. Through the ASEAN Blue Carbon and Finance Project, this momentum continues: by connecting innovators with real-world practices like those in Kobe, and showing how finance can unlock nature’s potential at scale.

This continuity matters. It demonstrates that innovation does not exist in isolation: when paired with knowledge exchange and sustainable finance, it can ripple outward and drive real impact. What began as a spark in ASEAN’s innovation ecosystem is now finding pathways for growth, supported by partnerships that stretch across borders.

The Kobe exchange underscored a simple but powerful truth: protecting our oceans and coasts is not only an environmental task, but also an economic and social opportunity. By linking science, policy, community action, and finance, ASEAN can chart a course where blue carbon solutions deliver climate resilience, livelihoods, and sustainable growth.

As part of the broader ABCF Project journey, the lessons from Kobe strengthen a growing regional movement – one that positions finance as a driver of climate resilience, community wellbeing, and sustainable growth for ASEAN’s blue economy. 

Writer:
Jatu Arum Sari