Sarah Allison, Integrated Marine Manager, reflects on the highlights, conversations and takeaways from Coastal Futures 2026.
This year’s Coastal Futures conference took place on the 28 and 29 January in the Royal Geographical Society building in Kensington. If you haven’t been before, Coastal Futures is essentially the big meet‑up for anyone working in or interested in the marine sector. Over two days, the conference brings together practitioners, policymakers, academics, NGOs, filmmakers, and grassroots groups, all talking about the issues facing our seas and importantly, the creative ways people are solving them.
Jamie Davies at MMO's standThe theme for this year’s conference was ‘From Ambition to Action’ which shaped the presentations across both days. Discussions focused on translating high‑level goals into practical solutions. Key themes woven throughout were sustainable blue growth, coastal resilience and community wellbeing, marine spatial planning, and action and accountability.The conference opened with a ministerial address from Emma Hardy, Minister for Water and Flooding (including domestic and international marine), who emphasised practical delivery alongside political ambition. From there, each themed session dug into different parts of the marine sectors: collaborative conservation efforts, community led coastal adaptation, the challenges of marine spatial planning, and the realities of balancing blue growth across industries. Speakers represented organisations such as Defra, the RSPB, IFCAs, The Crown Estate, the Environment Agency and consultancies such as AtkinsRealis and ABPMer. Day two began with a keynote from Natalie Prosser (Office for Environmental Protection) followed by a panel discussion titled ‘Robust evidence to actionable policy’ highlighting the need for strong evidence to inform decisions, while recognising that decisions need to be made using the best information available at the time. Later sessions focused on ‘Balancing Blue Growth’, examining marine policy and regulation from the perspective of development sectors such as shipping, offshore wind, and aggregates. The key takeaway was that developers are generally very supportive of stronger environmental regulation and more robust evidence gathering. What they’re less keen on is sudden shifts in policy direction, which create uncertainty and, ultimately, extra costs.
Blue Belt Progamme posterAs always, MMO was there as an annual sponsor showcasing the work we’re doing across England and internationally. This year was an opportunity for the Global Marine team (GMT) to present our work through a dedicated poster focusing on sustainable blue economies and our stand complete with beautiful footage of fish, sharks, turtles and crustaceans found in the UK Overseas Territories – which drew significant interest. The footage helped highlight the importance of the work we do in GMT and provided a real sense of the impact the programme has. We spoke with journalists, filmmakers, students, and marine professionals, all keen to understand more about how we undertake our international work.Personal reflections: For MMO and GMT in particular, it was a brilliant opportunity to share what we’ve been working on. I was genuinely impressed by how many people were curious about our international work, and by the breadth of questions we received throughout the event. Speaking to hundreds of delegates over two days is both uplifting and, admittedly, a little exhausting, but it’s also a powerful reminder of what we do and why we do it, and how much energy there is behind protecting and managing our shared marine environment.
https://marinedevelopments.blog.gov.uk/2026/03/05/sarah-allison-inside-coastal-futures-2026/
seen at 10:43, 5 March in Marine Development Blog.