HSBC Pollination Climate Asset Management, Lombard Odier and Mirova have been announced as founding partners of the Sustainable Markets Initiative’s Natural Capital Investment Alliance.

The Alliance was announced by The Prince of Wales under his Sustainable Markets Initiative at the One Planet Summit. The alliance aims to target $10 billion towards natural capital themes across asset classes by 2022

The Natural Capital Coalition defines natural capital as “another term for the stock of renewable and non-renewable resources (e.g. plants, animals, air, water, soils, minerals) that combine to yield a flow of benefits to people”.

The Alliance says their aim is, “To seize the scale of this opportunity, a finance-led approach is needed to integrate natural capital as an investment theme across different asset classes, as well as improved investor-centric descriptions of natural capital investment opportunities.” The goals of the Alliance are:

• To mobilise USD 10 billion towards Natural Capital themes across asset classes by 2022.
• To serve as a central hub for global corporations and financial institutions seeking to scale-up their investments into Natural Capital, in support of biodiversity restoration, including through Carbon Offsets.
• To share investment knowledge and expertise to help mainstream the Natural Capital investment theme and demonstrate scalability of appropriate vehicles and the multiple opportunities across asset classes.

Christof Kutscher, Executive Chairman of HSBC Pollination Climate Asset Management said: “We recognise nature is capital. Over the century, we have depleted nature creating possibly our biggest challenge to date. It is high time to take action at an unprecedented speed and scale. Investing in nature is a major investment opportunity, and the one action we must urgently take to protect our future.”

Hubert Keller, Managing Partner of Lombard Odier Group said: “The investment industry seeks returns as its primary objective and today some of the most convincing opportunities for growth and returns come from a transition to a more sustainable economic model that both harnesses and preserves Nature. At Lombard Odier, we develop solutions that allow mainstream investors to position capital to benefit from this untapped investment opportunity. We are proud to be founding members of this important Alliance, inspired by His Royal Highness’ vision, and to contribute to mobilising capital at a scale commensurate with the opportunity and challenges.”