Paul BegleyDirector

How can we harness the ocean to protect Earth’s life support systems? Can we significantly scale innovative solutions from ‘blue carbon’ entrepreneurs? What types of financial support will these ventures need?

Planet Earth is more blue than green. Marine-based ecosystems store more carbon than terrestrial forests, offer green chemistry and alternative food solutions, new sources of energy - but are often neglected from the climate conversation. The “Blue Project” brings together expertise from Carbon13 and Better Sustainability with The Earthshot Prize as a sourcing partner to create a community of high-performing ventures, provide exclusive financial support and raise awareness of the critical role of blue carbon in preventing climate change.

For almost 20 years, Paul has worked at the cutting edge of sustainability, equipping individuals to solve some of societies’ biggest issues. For 11 years, he was a Director at the University of Cambridge where he designed and delivered learning programmes for leaders from some of the world’s most influential organisations, including the African Development Bank, Chanel, GE, Standard Chartered and the Tata Group.

He founded Better Sustainability in 2023. It works with high networth individuals, influential companies and entrepreneurs to empower people to create financial value while solving societies’ most significant social and environmental problems. Alongside its discrete projects, Paul leads three main projects which are delivered with strategic partners.

The Negative Emissions Programme provides a safe space to explore ways to scale the negative emissions economy. In the first year, the Negative Emissions Programme helped companies set new targets for carbon removals and establish new action plans, supported direct investment into start-ups and informed the design of a new fund. The Blue Project, which is delivered with the venture-builder, Carbon 13. It aims to accelerate the establishment of viable, scalable marine-based greenhouse gas removals projects. This work is unusual in structure: alongside the venture builder, it convenes wealth owners to inform how they can best support these start-ups. The Climate Diplomacy Programme sits alongside these two activities and is designed to help civil servants build the skills to put climate action at the heart of trade and investment decisions. This work has been developed with support from former negotiators at the World Trade Organisation, climate scientists and civic leaders who have been instrumental in some of the most successful debt-for-nature swaps.

Paul creates communities, facilitates discussions and is a regular speaker on sustainability issues. In early 2025, he joined a UK Government-backed conversations to establish a centre for negative emissions in the United Arab Emirates.