Investing in Blue Carbon: A Preview of The Nature Conservancy’s Blue Carbon Cost Tool.

As global attention turns towards New York Climate Week, The Nature Conservancy (TNC), in collaboration with Vizzuality and Bain & Company, is launching its Blue Carbon Cost Tool (BCCT) this week.* The platform has been developed to help diverse stakeholders — from NGOs and researchers to investors and policymakers — identify financial gaps and surface new blue carbon investment opportunities.

*This blog was updated on Sept 18th with the tool's launch.

Why blue carbon projects?

Coastal ecosystems like mangroves, salt marshes, and seagrasses play a crucial role in climate mitigation. Known as “blue carbon” ecosystems, these habitats capture and store carbon in their sediments at rates often exceeding those of terrestrial forests. Beyond their carbon storage capabilities, they support rich biodiversity, safeguard coastlines, improve water quality, and sustain local livelihoods.

Yet despite their importance, blue carbon ecosystems face escalating threats from urban development, agricultural runoff, industrial pollution, and the growing impacts of climate change. Protecting and restoring these vital habitats at scale is urgent, but barriers such as limited data availability, complex project logistics, and misaligned financial incentives have hindered effective action.

A tool to align investment with impact

To help close this gap, The Nature Conservancy (TNC), together with partners including Vizzuality and Bain & Company, are developing the Blue Carbon Cost Tool (BCCT). The first-of-its-kind BCCT tool was launched on an interactive platform designed to assist a diverse range of stakeholders — from NGOs and researchers to investors and policy makers — in identifying financial gaps and uncovering investment opportunities of blue carbon market projects.

What the beta version revealed

In its beta version, the BCCT analyzed pilot data from nine countries to uncover key insights about project feasibility and cost variation. Early findings have revealed significant variability in project costs — particularly costs for site preparation, legal compliance, community engagement, and monitoring — underscoring that some projects require higher price tolerance or upfront capital.

These insights confirmed that there’s no one-size-fits-all model and that better data is essential for smarter, scalable investment. They also laid the foundation for the tool’s upcoming public launch.

“The BCCT has been instrumental in our efforts to test different cost assumptions in Aotearoa New Zealand, allowing us to understand what it would take to make blue carbon projects viable. These insights are already informing our dialogues with policymakers and funders.” — Olya Albot, Nature-Based Solutions Project Manager, New Zealand Program, The Nature Conservancy

What to expect?

Building on the insights from the internal beta phase, the Blue Carbon Cost Tool (BCCT) — which is set to launch later this year — aims to address a fundamental challenge: the misalignment between project developers and buyers around costs, risks, and expected benefits.

Here’s what to expect from the upcoming release:

• Expanded coverage: Over 400 modeled scenarios across nine countries, three blue carbon ecosystems, and a variety of project types, activities, and scales.
• Custom project feature: Users will be able to input their own project data to model financial feasibility.
• Data contributions: Users can submit cost data to improve tool accuracy over time and promote shared learning.
• Decision-support focus: Outputs tailored to support grant applications, policy engagement, and feasibility studies.

TNC envisions the BCCT as a go-to resource for blue carbon project planning and investment alignment.

What to expect at NYC Climate Week

The Blue Carbon Cost Tool is expected to be showcased at NYC Climate Week 2025. As momentum builds around the role of blue carbon in climate mitigation and adaptation, the BCCT is positioned to support transparent, scalable, and science-backed project planning.

This collaboration between TNC and Vizzuality demonstrates how combining scientific expertise with powerful digital tools can accelerate bold, collaborative climate action.

“The Blue Carbon Cost Tool will help standardize how we collect and share cost data, making knowledge exchange user-friendly and accessible. Costs will be transparent and comparable, guiding smarter investment in blue carbon markets.” — Stefanie Simpson, Senior Blue Carbon Manager, The Nature Conservancy.

Stay tuned

Curious about the full product launch this fall? Subscribe to The Nature Conservancy’s newsletter to follow the BCCT’s journey.