Climate Asset Management’s USD 445 Million Nature Based Carbon Fund awarded “Environmental Fund of the Year”

Climate Asset Management’s Nature Based Carbon Strategy named “Environmental Fund of the Year: Africa”

London, UK – Climate Asset Management (CAM), a specialist natural capital investment management firm, today announced that its flagship Nature Based Carbon Fund (NBCF) has been awarded “Environmental Fund of the Year: Africa” by Environmental Finance as part of the Sustainable Investment Awards 2025. The recognition follows the Fund’s final close at the end of 2024, which secured over USD 445 million in committed capital, making it one of the largest nature-based focused carbon investment vehicles targeting global emerging markets.

The award acknowledges outstanding achievement in environmental investing across Africa. It highlights the fund’s landscape-scale strategy which aims to generate independently verified, high-integrity carbon credits while delivering measurable co-benefits such as biodiversity protection, ecosystem restoration, and improved rural livelihoods across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The fund’s strategy also builds long-term partnerships with experienced project developers, NGOs, scientific organisations, and local communities, all anchored in, transparent governance, best-practice Free Prior Informed Consent (FPIC) processes and inclusive benefit-sharing.

NBCF has drawn commitments from a global cohort of 10 international corporates, one Development Finance Institution (DFI) and HSBC, all with voluntary net-zero targets, including:

• GSK’s long-term investment, which aims to secure approximately a quarter of carbon credits that they need from 2030 to meet their commitment to invest in nature-based solutions.
• Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH’s (DEG) investment was supported by the EU-backed Carbon Sinks programme, managed by EDFI Management Company.
• Tokyo Gas, a leading company in the Japanese energy industry and the only Asian limited partner in CAM’s NBCF, is deploying advanced decarbonization technologies and leveraging high-integrity carbon credits to support its net zero transition by 2050.
• Microsoft recently announced its investment in the NBCF, highlighting its broader commitment to innovation and the development of climate markets as part of its journey toward net zero.

These investments highlight not only confidence in the voluntary carbon markets, but a clear demand for investment into nature-based carbon solutions at scale underpinned by institutional grade investment and asset management. Each investor through their investment consistently contributes to the goal of the Paris Agreement for Climate Action and Kumming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework to support shaping a Net-Zero and Nature Positive world.

“These commitments reflect the strong market need but it must be met with investment strategies that manage risks, generate returns, an uphold integrity. Our Nature Based Carbon Strategy (NBCS) does exactly that, by aggregating risk across a diversified portfolio and combining near-term revenue streams with long-term impact, we aim to create a credible, replicable blueprint for financing nature at scale” said Martin Berg, CEO, Climate Asset Management.

Restoring Africa’s Landscapes at Scale

NBCF is already backing some of the continent’s most ambitious restoration programmes. In partnership with the Global Evergreening Alliance (GEA), the Restore Africa Programme, announced at COP26, is one of the largest nature-based restoration initiatives in the world, aiming to restore up to 800,000 hectares of degraded land and support 600,000 households across Kenya, Uganda, and Malawi.

Sustainable Grazing and Community-Led Restoration

NBCF also backs regenerative rangeland management. In March 2023, the fund completed an investment into a sustainable grazing initiative in Kenya’s Kajiado District, working across 25 Maasai group ranches to regenerate up to 1.2 million hectares of grasslands. Over 30 years, this project is expected to remove an estimated 27.7 million tonnes of CO₂e.

“With its first two investments, CAM’s NBCF seeks to enable rural communities across Africa to fight climate change with restoration interventions that are locally appropriate for their context and are designed under a participatory approach, thereby regenerating ecosystems, improving food security, and building long-term resilience,. We are seeking to invest in a diversified portfolio that will deliver substantial impacts across the five impact targets of the NBCF: Climate, People, Biodiversity and Water, while managing the risks of investing in early stage landscape-scale nature-based solutions projects” said Viviana Luján Gallegos, Managing Director, Carbon Strategy.

Our Partners

NBCF’s investments are grounded in close collaboration with experienced local partners to ensure high-impact, community-led restoration.

One of the fund’s cornerstone partnerships is with the Global EverGreening Alliance (GEA) on the Restore Africa programme. Restore Africa is the world’s largest farmer-led, nature based, carbon removal land restoration programme. Thanks to CAM’s catalytic investment we were able to accelerate the programme, moving from design to implementation, within 18 months of the original announcement of our partnership in 2021 at COP26 in Glasgow. Through our collaborative partnership, the GEA and CAM are working together to ensure the best outcomes for people and planet.

The Kajiado Rangelands Carbon Project (KRCP), developed in Kenya with local partner Carbon Solve and Soils for the Future Africa, exemplifies this approach. As Tim Tear, Director of CarbonSolve notes:

“CAM’s NBCF has definitely followed through on its commitments to addressing climate change while making sure there are direct co-benefits to local communities and to biodiversity as well. Their selection of the KRCP does exactly that – as it is already providing direct economic benefits to the local Maasai communities and supporting their priorities as part of project establishment. CAMs support has allowed this project to thoroughly document the baseline data necessary to demonstrate the long term benefits this soil carbon project will bring to local communities and to biodiversity, all while directly removing carbon dioxide from the air to the soil” said Tim Tear, Director of CarbonSolve and Soils for the Future Africa.

Jackson Kikardi, Country Coordinator and Director of Soils for the Future Africa, further emphasizes the impact:

“CAMs trust in our communities to get it right has been a game-changer. They chose our project when it was small and just beginning – and both our project staff and our partnering communities are very appreciative that they gave us this chance to show that we can do this work well. The employment it has provided and the direct benefits to the communities are widely appreciated. the project has created a positive impact.”

About Us

Climate Asset Management was formed in 2020 as a joint venture of HSBC Asset Management and Pollination, with the ambition to grow the world’s leading asset management company dedicated to natural capital. It aims to provide investment solutions that are good for nature, people, and our planet. Climate Asset Management’s investment strategies seek to work across landscapes to build resilience whilst generating returns. Through its Natural Capital Strategy, it aims to deliver attractive, long-term risk return outcomes and create impact at scale by protecting and restoring vital biodiversity. Through its Nature Based Carbon Strategy, it aims to unlock the supply of high impact carbon credits for corporates and investors seeking to achieve net zero.

Issued in the UK by Climate Asset Management Limited which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK (FRN 944222). Its registered address is at 3 More London Riverside, London SE1 2AQ, United Kingdom

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