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This content was produced by Insights, the custom content arm of MIT Technology Review. It was not written by MIT Technology Review's editorial staff.
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Ranking

The Blue Technology Barometer

The Blue Technology Barometer is a ranking of 66 coastal countries and territories on their progress and commitment toward protecting ocean sustainability. It measures the degree to which economies are prioritizing the protection of ocean health, through sustainable marine activity, blue innovation, and policy implementation.

Overall rankings

The overall rankings tab shows the performance of the examined economies relative to each other and aggregates scores generated across the following four pillars: Ocean environment, Marine activity, Technology innovation and Policy and regulation.

Ocean environment

This pillar ranks each country according to its levels of marine water contamination, its plastic recycling efforts, the CO2 emissions of its marine activities (relative to the size of its economy), and the recent change of total emissions.

Marine activity

This pillar ranks each country on the sustainability of its marine activities, including shipping, fishing, and protected areas.

Technology innovation

This pillar ranks each country on its contribution to ocean sustainable technology research and development, including expenditure, patents, and startups.

Policy and regulation

This pillar ranks each country on its stance on ocean sustainability-related policy and regulation, including national-level policies, taxes, fees, and subsidies, and the implementation of international marine law.

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About the Index

The Blue Technology Barometer is a ranking of 66 coastal countries and territories on their progress and commitment toward protecting ocean sustainability. It measures the degree to which economies are prioritizing the protection of ocean health, through sustainable marine activity, blue innovation, and policy implementation.

Methodology

The Blue Technology Barometer measures the performance of countries and territories across four pillars:

The Blue Technology Barometer was developed through the analysis of select datasets and primary research interviews with global blue technology innovators, policymakers, and international ocean sustainability organizations.

It quantifies the economies of 66 countries and territories with large or economically significant ocean coastlines along four separate pillars: ocean environment, marine activity, technology innovation, and policy and regulation.

Within each pillar, a series of indicators—a list of qualitative and quantitative factors—were then selected and populated. Through trend analysis, research, and a consultative peer-review process with several of the subject matter experts interviewed for this report, weighting assumptions were assigned to determine the relative importance with which each indicator and pillar influenced a country’s blue technology leadership.

About Us

MIT Technology Review was founded at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1899. We are a leading voice on climate change issues with a dedicated topic area on our website for the global climate emergency, including innovations that may accelerate decarbonization and national climate policy initiatives. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is strongly committed to climate change: in May 2021, MIT shared a new, decade-long plan aimed at fighting climate change and helping to decarbonize the economy by 2050.

MIT Technology Review Insights is the custom publishing division of MIT Technology Review. We conduct qualitative and quantitative research and analysis worldwide and publish a wide variety of content, including articles, reports, infographics, videos, and podcasts.

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