Climate

As wildfires and extreme weather escalate, investors are under increasing pressure to allocate more capital to climate resilience and risk sidelining the longer-term goal of reducing emissions.

Featherlight Capital counts ex-Wafra, La Caisse and Power Sustainable investors among its investment team.

New income streams – from water rights to conservation and data infrastructure – are redefining what investors see in ranchland, says Ranchland Capital’s Ed Bardowski.

The farmland and timberland investor will pursue its strategy of repositioning undervalued assets through organic and regenerative conversion, operational efficiency and decarbonization.

Climate Fund Managers’ $1.06bn final close for Climate Investor II is a win for climate finance in frontier markets. It’s also a reminder that standardization remains elusive.

Co-founder Nick Dilks says allocation and liquidity challenges kept some LPs from backing the vehicle, which pursues large-scale mitigation, biodiversity and habitat restoration projects.

The blended finance fund manager previously structured the $1.6bn Galapagos debt-for-nature swap, in which CI2 was an investor.

Managing director John McKenna says LPs are waking up to the fact ‘40% of the world’s biodiversity is in Latin America’ and are allocating accordingly.

Australia’s Agriculture and Land Sector Plan outlines major opportunities in carbon, biodiversity and clean fuel, but investors lack the clarity that has driven capital into other sectors like renewable energy.

Silva Capital has broken ground on the first project registered under Australia’s biodiversity market but questions remain over how the demand for biodiversity certificates will develop.