HSBC Asset Management-backed natural capital investment manager Climate Asset Management has acquired 1,800 hectares of farmland in Queensland, Australia for a Macadamia project.
Climate Asset Management has acquired the farmland on behalf of its natural capital fund for an unspecified amount.
The latest deal is the third large-scale land-transformation project acquired by the natural capital fund and the first in Australia, Climate Asset Management said.
The former sugar-cane-farmed land in Queensland is expected to be transformed into a sustainably managed, native and high-value Macadamia orchard.
The project, which is located between two national parks, will allocate around 10% of the land area to native habitat restoration.
The project aims to achieve net zero for Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2030 and to generate additional carbon removal units through increasing carbon storage in above and below-ground biomass, the manager said.
Ben O’Donnell, CIO of Climate Asset Management’s natural capital fund, said the native macadamia project complements the fund’s existing Iberian projects in Spain and Portugal producing almonds and olives and demonstrates the viability of the manager’s model across geographies.
O’Donnell added: “We are experiencing increasing appetite from investors for opportunities in natural capital to help diversify and rebalance investment portfolios targeting net zero.
“We continue to raise and deploy funds for our Natural Capital strategy through a healthy pipeline of projects in ANZ, North America and Europe.”
Climate Asset Management was formed in 2020 as a joint venture of HSBC Asset Management and Pollination.
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