Growing interest in nature-based solutions should help lead to greater scaling of restoration projects and deliver better outcomes for marginal communities, says Climate Asset Management's Tripurari Prasad, winner of this year's Investment leader of the year award.
Prasad joined Climate Asset Management (CAM) as investment director last year. Of CAM's $1 billion in assets under management, approximately half is committed to its carbon strategies that invest in nature-based projects benefiting marginal communities.
"Our clients are seeking a diverse range of different nature-based carbon projects that deliver real outcomes for nature, climate, and communities," he says. "The transactions that we have closed are poised to make a significant social impact on communities in terms of livelihoods and income.
"I have been focusing a lot on how we can connect marginal communities to mature markets in a way to create a sustainable product chain that also helps remove carbon from the atmosphere."
Prasad emphasises that building sustainable value chains for marginalised communities is likely to be an ongoing theme for the asset manager, as it not only empowers and sets them on a path to financial independence but also helps curb deforestation.
"Climate change is driving major shifts in agriculture and contributing to rising deforestation," he notes. "To address this, we need to rethink our agricultural and commodity systems and transition toward more sustainable practices."
"This shift will not only mitigate climate-related challenges but also provide additional income streams for local communities."
CAM focuses on projects that are large-scale and may involve tens of thousands of farmers across large areas. These initiatives aim to transform degraded land into productive assets that generate both commercial income and carbon credits.
While Prasad acknowledges potential "headwinds" in the year ahead, he remains optimistic about the growing momentum behind nature-based solutions.
"As the regulatory landscape evolves, new opportunities will emerge," he says. "We're closely monitoring these changes, as they present a chance to scale investments in this space."
He also notes that increasing interest from private equity and institutional investors is enabling large-scale ecosystem restoration efforts, which will further amplify environmental impact.
Before joining Climate Asset Management, Prasad served as global director for carbon solutions at HSBC and began his career at oil and gas giant Shell in 2011, where he was first introduced to nature-based solutions. He is also an advisory board member of Social Carbon and a member of Verra's Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) programme advisory group.
One Sustainable Investment Awards judge highlighted his "wide-ranging experience, particularly across emerging markets projects with a significant bottom-up impact".
"There's a maturity gap in the nature-based solutions industry," says Prasad. "It can benefit greatly from the institutional knowledge and infrastructure lessons of sectors like oil and gas or mining.
"This space presents an opportunity to apply what I've learned from those sectors. It shares many of the same geopolitical, stakeholder, and legal complexities."
Having also previously worked at sustainability consultancy South Pole, Prasad has contributed to the ongoing development of the industry and was involved in negotiating the world's first Article 6.2 Internationally Transferred Mitigation Outcome (ITMO) credits between Switzerland and Thailand under the Paris Agreement.
