The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP) is to invest $30 million in The Amazon Reforestation Fund, a project which looks to reforest Brazilian pastureland by using native tree species to rebuild the forests of the Amazon.
The fund is managed by startup Mombak Gestora de Recursos, a Brazilian investment manager focused on carbon removal. CPP will also give $500,000 directly to Mombak as part of the deal.
The additional carbon abated from the atmosphere from the new forests replacing former pastureland will produce carbon removal credits. The credits are then sold globally via both spot sales and long-term customer offtake agreements.
CPP Investments’ Sustainable Energies group is active across the global energy system, with net assets totalling approximately $24 billion, including investments in renewables, utilities, and energy technology. This is the group’s third investment in vehicles that pursue scaling nature-based carbon solutions and its first investment in Brazilian reforestation.
Bill Rogers, head of sustainable energies at CPP Investments, said: “The global economy transition is well underway, and we expect that the value of high-quality, verifiable, nature-based carbon removal credits such as the ones produced through The Amazon Reforestation Fund will continue to rise.”
Mombak has previously stated that it has already entered into a carbon credits agreement with an as yet unnamed global technology corporation. More than 10,000 hectares of former pastureland used for cattle grazing will be reforested, around the size of the city of Dublin, Ireland.
In July this year, AXA IM invested $49 million in the reforestation fund, taking a minority stake in Mombak in the process.
This month it was reported that the Brazilian government is preparing to launch an ambitious net zero investment plan worth hundreds of billions of dollars with the intent to lure global investors to South America's largest economy.
