Partnerships for Nature: insights from Indigenous-led models in Canada
15 April 2025 / WORDS BY Pollination Foundation
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To get a sense of how global nature finance is evolving, we asked a range of institutional investors about their experiences investing in nature. We uncovered their motivations, ambitions, and what they consider to be the greatest risks and opportunities in the nature space – forming the backbone of the inaugural Pollination Nature Finance Focus report.
View reportClimate Asset Management, the specialist “natural capital” investment manager formed by HSBC Asset Management (HSBA.L) and climate change advisory firm Pollination Group, said it has raised $650 million for projects which aim to protect the environment.
Its investors are corporates, ranging from some of the top global 100 companies to smaller niche players, Martin Berg, CAM’s chief investment officer, said. Rather than financial returns, these investors will receive carbon credits.
“We thought the main target (for the funds) would be institutional investors but we now recognise corporates are key players … they are really becoming (big) investors in this,” he said.
Through its Natural Capital Strategy’s flagship 15-year Natural Capital Fund, CAM is targeting a 10% return on investment before fees on projects in regenerative agriculture and forestry in developed markets. CAM’s second strategy, its Nature Based Carbon Strategy, taps into increasing corporate demand for verifiable carbon offsets and will finance nature-based carbon projects in developing economies.
06 June 2023 / WORDS BY Dr Carter Ingram and Dipti Patel
Last week Pollination participated in the Future of Food USA Forum in Minneapolis, Minnesota, moderating a panel discussion on moving brands from climate commitments to action and participating in a discussion on using a landscape scale approach to sustainable sourcing to secure a forest positive future. The Forum brought together leading brands and key stakeholders to identify the main areas of opportunity and innovation within the food and beverage industry, including regenerative and climate-smart agriculture, supply chain resilience, nature and land use, and farmers of the future. Following the event, Pollination Executive Director, Carter Ingram, and Director, Dipti Patel, provide their insights on what is needed to spur the necessary change in the agriculture sector:
Farmers and ranchers must be at the centre of the table
Farmers are critical to solving the climate crisis. Given many of the costs and risks associated with making a nature-positive, climate transition are borne by farmers, they must be central to the development of climate solutions and tools including financing and funding opportunities to enable implementation of climate smart agriculture.
Climate and nature are big problems, and big problems require stakeholder collaboration
Collaboration across the full value chain is essential for the agriculture sector to realise climate and nature reductions and benefits. No one corporation or industry group can solve these issues alone. In many cases, unlikely partnerships across farmers, governments, corporates, and local communities are needed to address big issues, such as deforestation, biodiversity loss, and water scarcity.
Perfect should not be the enemy of the good
Sustainability data collection and reporting continue to require significant time and effort for businesses, especially as new frameworks emerge and existing frameworks get updated with new requirements. Measuring the environmental outcomes of climate-smart agricultural practices is complex and the goalposts for reporting in climate commitments are frequently moving. However, seeking complete data sets or aligning to highly complex reporting framework diverts businesses time and resources from actions that are critically needed to advance and scale climate-smart agricultural practices. The sector needs to work together to develop pragmatic approaches to measuring, managing, and reporting the climate and nature impacts of practices.
The importance of education and technical support
Farmers need to be empowered with the technology, information, and tools they need for success. There are limited resources and technical assistance programs that enable farmers to properly assess the business case for climate-smart practices and select the right practice for their farm, especially in emerging markets and rural areas. Every stakeholder group has a unique role to play in providing these resources to farmers.
Private sector finance is critical to closing the climate finance gap for agriculture
The climate finance gap for agriculture is massive – the amount of funding needed for agriculture to reduce emissions to limit warming to 1.5°C is significantly greater than the investment reaching the sector today. Farmers need financial solutions that incentivise them and help de-risk the implementation of climate-smart practices. This will require a broad range of solutions, from reduced loan rates to adjusted insurance premiums, that provide farmers with the right financing at the right time for the right practice.
15 April 2025 / WORDS BY Pollination Foundation
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