His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales wants the US$120 trillion investment management industry to focus more on natural capital.
He has established an alliance of institutional investors designed to mobilise private capital for projects in regenerative and sustainable agriculture, forestry, fisheries, coastal restoration and blue carbon, biodiversity and wildlife protection, and assets that generate carbon credits.
Lombard Odier, HSBC Pollination Climate Asset Management and Mirova are the founding partners in the Natural Capital Investment Alliance of the Sustainable Markets Initiative. It aims to inject US$10 billion into natural capital investments by 2022.
The alliance pitch says that although half of global GDP depends on natural capital, there are only a limited number of initiatives to promote nature as an investment opportunity. It wants to accelerate natural capital as an investment theme, saying a finance-led approach is needed to integrate natural capital across asset classes.
“The Terra Carta offers the basis of a recovery plan that puts nature at the heart of value creation”
It’s the finance engine that will drive the Prince’s Terra Carta – a charter launched to promote sustainability in the private sector. Prince Charles appealed to corporates to sign up to the charter, designed as a roadmap for businesses to move toward a sustainable future.
Prince Charles said, “The Terra Carta offers the basis of a recovery plan that puts nature, people and planet at the heart of global value creation – one that will harness the precious, irreplaceable power of nature combined with the transformative innovation and resources of the private sector.”
The Terra Carta and its investment engine are key to the Prince’s Sustainable Markets Initiative announced at Davos last year.
The articles of the Terra Carta promote:
- Creating sustainable industries
- Defaulting to sustainable business models
- Supporting consumers – who control 60 per cent of GDP – in making sustainable choices.
