The Blue Eligibility Checker
An AI-powered diagnostic from the Blue Bond Accelerator. Supporting project owners and developers in identifying and refining project eligibility for Blue Finance.
Bridging the Gap to Investment
The Blue Bond Accelerator (BBA) is a global initiative dedicated to building high-integrity market infrastructure for the regenerative and sustainable blue economy. To catalyse the US$70 billion in blue investment needed by 2030, the market requires a transparent and credible pipeline of eligible projects.
The blue eligibility checker supports this mission by making global blue finance standards more accessible, empowering asset and project owners and developers to identify and refine eligible activities. By embedding market integrity at the source, we build the foundation for a high-quality pipeline that connects ocean-positive projects across the regenerative and sustainable blue economy with institutional blue finance.
Public Good Diagnostic & Institutional Pathways
The web-based blue eligibility checker is provided as an open-access public good, receiving continuous minor refinements to support project developers, SMEs, and corporate issuers seeking early clarity on their blue contribution.
For commercial institutions, sovereign entities, and Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) managing broader loan books or multi-asset programmes, BBA is actively establishing bilateral engagement pathways. Operating beyond the open web tool, these collaborative development tracks focus on exploring bulk portfolio screening, custom taxonomy mapping against internal sector codes, and guided transaction pipeline road-testing prior to capital allocation and financing transactions.
The Two-Phase Assessment Process
The blue eligibility checker provides an objective, evidence-led diagnostic through a two-stage process grounded in the Bonds to Finance the Sustainable Blue Economy: A Practitioner's Guide:
- 1Phase 1: Blue Contribution Screening
- The journey begins with a rapid assessment of project activities. This stage provides an early indication of “Blue Contribution,” helping users verify that project activities fall within foundational blue economy categories and successfully clear rigorous exclusionary criteria.
- 2Phase 2: Deep Eligibility Analysis
- For projects with established potential, this phase conducts a more detailed review. It moves beyond high-level contribution to analyse specific documentary evidence, impact indicators and technical nuances. This stage provides the technical guidance needed to help projects reach their full potential.
Independent Review Notice: The blue eligibility checker is an indicative upstream diagnostic designed for market capacity building and pipeline preparation. It does not provide investment or credit advice, nor does it intend to replace or supersede an independent external review, third-party assurance or a formal Second Party Opinion (SPO).
Eligible Blue Economy Sectors
When initiating an assessment, you will be prompted to select the primary sector that best describes your project. The tool evaluates activities across the eight foundational categories defined in the Practitioner's Guide.
Coastal Climate Adaptation & Resilience
Nature-based sea defenses, mangrove/dune flood protection, erosion control, and community resilience within coastal zones.
Marine Ecosystem Management & Conservation
Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), marine spatial planning (MSP), coral reef and seagrass restoration, and invasive species control.
Sustainable Coastal & Marine Tourism
Low-impact eco-tourism operations, certified sustainable destinations, coastal cultural preservation, and efficiency retrofits.
Sustainable Marine Value Chains
Sustainable fisheries management (4a), sustainable aquaculture (4b), and cold chain traceability and processing (4c).
Marine Renewable Energy
Offshore wind (fixed & floating), wave energy converters, tidal stream arrays, floating solar PV, and OTEC generation.
Waste Prevention & Management
Wastewater treatment (6a), solid waste reduction (6b), circular economy inputs (6c), and agricultural runoff control.
Sustainable Ports
Cold-ironing shore power, port environmental management systems, green infrastructure, and port reception facilities.
Sustainable Marine Transport
Low-carbon commercial vessel propulsion (electric, hybrid, wind-assist), energy efficiency retrofits, and MARPOL compliance.
Unsure where your project sits? Select the category closest to your operational focus. Phase 2 automatically scans across secondary categories to identify multi-sector co-benefits and additional pathways to eligibility.
Phase 1: Understanding Your Results
The tool provides factual findings based strictly on the strength of the data and documentation provided during the initial screening.
- Strong Evidence
- Project activities and documentation demonstrate a clear contribution to the sustainable blue economy.
- Limited Evidence
- Alignment is indicated, but further technical documentation is required to strengthen the case.
- No Evidence
- The submitted data does not currently provide sufficient proof of blue contribution.
- Ineligible
- The project falls within categories restricted by global exclusion lists, such as destructive fishing or harmful coastal development.
These results provide a clear technical baseline, enabling users to identify immediate priorities before progressing to the more detailed assessment in Phase 2.
Phase 2: Guidance and Potential
For projects that proceed to the Deep Eligibility Analysis, the tool provides a detailed report. This analysis is designed to help projects reach their potential by providing useful guidance through the Practitioner's Guide.
Rather than a simple pass or fail, the tool generates a prioritised list of technical gaps (such as missing quantification or permits) and suggests “Possible Approaches” to address them. These findings outline where the project stands today and what technical steps are needed to access the blue finance market.
Standards and Methodology
To ensure institutional trust and global interoperability, the blue eligibility checker is anchored in widely recognised international standards:
The Practitioner's Guide for Bonds to Finance the Sustainable Blue Economy
Developed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the UN Global Compact (UNGC), the International Capital Market Association (ICMA), and the UN Environment – Finance Initiative (UNEP FI), this is the global consensus on blue finance eligibility.
UNEP FI Recommended Exclusions for Sustainable Blue Economy Financing
The tool integrates rigorous exclusionary screening to help ensure project activities do not negatively impact ocean health or coastal communities.
Security and Data Integrity
BBA's commitment to market integrity is underpinned by security and confidentiality. This tool's operating model is built on four core principles to ensure complete transparency regarding data custody and privacy:
- User Custody & Deletion Notice
- By submitting project details or documentation, you acknowledge that this information is hosted on secure server infrastructure solely to execute your diagnostic assessment. Your data remains entirely under your ownership and control. You can permanently delete individual project submissions or your full user account at any time via your dashboard, permanently purging all associated records from our servers.
- Zero Operational Access
- While files are stored securely on our servers to generate your diagnostic reports, BBA staff and technical partners do not access, open, review, or evaluate your specific project names, inputs, or uploaded files for technical assistance or commercial purposes.
- Enterprise Security & No Model Training
- The diagnostic engine runs on enterprise-grade infrastructure with strict data isolation. Submitted documents and narrative texts are never used to train external artificial intelligence models.
- Aggregated Metadata Usage
- We track solely high-level, anonymised platform analytics (such as sector distribution, country-level activity, and overall assessment counts) to monitor blue economy market trends, assess platform performance, and inform our public research.
Help Us Shape the Tool
The blue eligibility checker is a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) currently in Open Beta. We are continuously refining the diagnostic logic to better serve the market; feedback from our users is highly valued.
Please share your insights via our feedback form to help us improve the tool.
Ready to assess your project?
Start your Blue Eligibility Check today and identify clear pathways to blue investment.
Built by the team behind Arctal