HSBC Asset Management and climate change investment and advisory firm Pollination joint venture Climate Asset Management announced that it has raised over $1 billion for natural capital projects with the final close of its Natural Capital and Nature Based Carbon Funds, alongside its Restore Fund with tech giant Apple.

Climate Asset Management was launched by HSBC AM and Pollination in 2020, to invest in a diverse range of projects that will preserve, protect and enhance nature over the long-term, and to offer investors a wide exposure to global natural capital themes in both emerging and developed markets, while also providing stewardship and evaluation of the investments, enabling investors to quantitatively measure impact.

The platform currently consists of three funds, including the Natural Capital Fund, focused on real asset investments in regenerative agriculture, sustainable forestry and environmental assets across developed markets; the Nature Based Carbon Fund, aimed at generating high quality carbon credits from large-scale landscape restoration and conservation projects delivering climate resilience, biodiversity improvements and community benefits in developing economies, and; The Restore Fund, designed by Apple and Climate Asset Management, which adopts a blended approach from both strategies to target a financial return and carbon credits from high-quality carbon removals, and is open to investment from Apple’s supply chain to address unavoidable residual emissions with high-quality carbon removal.

Climate Asset Management said that it has been rapidly deploying the funds, with a significant proportion of capital raised already deployed to projects with the potential to improve more than two million hectares of global landscapes, including a regenerative agriculture project in Australia, a sustainable forestry project in New Zealand, projects to help adopt regenerative management practices in farms in Spain and Portugal, and a project aimed at restoring 900,000 hectares through the introduction of rapid rotational grazing practices with Maasai communities in Kenya.

Climate Asset Management CEO Martin Berg said:

“Nature has for too long been taken for granted and we owe it to future generations to make amends and ensure that climate resilience and biodiversity gains are the principal objectives of our real asset portfolio offering a sustainable future for all.  Importantly we’ve been able to demonstrate that this capital can be deployed in a way that we expect will achieve investment objectives while enhancing outcomes for the climate, nature and communities.”