Opportunities for climate impact

Forests and farmland are increasingly recognized as economic and scalable natural climate solutions. The rapid increases in corporate and investor net zero commitments are leading to new opportunities to manage timberland and agriculture for carbon value.

Timberland from a carbon value perspective

Investing in carbon-focused timberland

 

Eric Cooperström, managing director of our impact investing and natural climate solutions, shares the investment opportunities offered by carbon-focused timberland in this Q&A and six-minute video interview, recorded at the annual BAI Alternative Investor Conference, Germany.
Watch the video and read the Q&A

Carbon market indicators

A biannual update enabling investors to access our latest insight into global market movements at a glance.
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We believe climate mitigation and nature will become an integrated value driver for timberland and agriculture as they become more explicitly valued.

With a history of providing stable, high-quality, long-term sources of carbon sequestration and other ecosystem services, natural climate solutions can benefit the climate, nature, and people. 

Natural climate solutions and carbon markets: addressing climate change at scale

Watch the video

What are natural climate solutions?

Natural climate solutions use nature’s inherent benefits to cost-effectively address climate change and nature loss. They represent 37% of the opportunity to sequester the carbon required by 2030 to maintain global warming below 2˚C.¹

Learn about investing in natural capital for financial and fundamental value

Low-cost climate change solutions

As significant carbon sinks, trees and soils have the ability to naturally remove CO2 from the atmosphere in an efficient, low-cost manner. Investment in these natural climate solutions can play a vital role in climate change mitigation and act as a first line of defense for protecting and enhancing biodiversity.

The graphic below compares the climate consequences of insufficient emissions reduction policies against the results achieved by maintaining current policies or by realizing global pledges and targets for tackling climate change.



What are carbon markets?

Carbon markets channel capital to finance the development of projects that can help to remove or avoid greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and speed the transition to net zero. Broadly speaking, there are two types of carbon markets—compliance and voluntary—and by determining prices on emissions, carbon markets provide companies with valuable information needed to meet their internal emissions goals.

Learn more about the changing nature of the carbon market

Timberland from a carbon value perspective

The growing use of forestland as a climate change mitigation tool has added a new dimension to opportunities in timberland investment.

Learn how carbon-focused timberland investment is poised for significant growth

Viable, scalable, and investable natural climate solutions: drivers supporting forestry

Global prioritization of the Paris Agreement goals

Growing private sector focus on climate risks supports investments that can enhance value chain and portfolio sequestration and provide a climate hedge.

Growing preference for natural climate solutions

Companies and investors are increasingly looking to carbon markets—especially sequestration through natural capital—as a transitional tool for achieving their climate goals.

Increased focus on standards and management practices

Demand for voluntary carbon offsets is expected to increase by up to 100 times by 2050, and stricter sustainability regulations and carbon credit practices are rapidly emerging.

Carbon management optionality

Managing timberland assets for timber value or carbon value is not a binary choice, and we offer a spectrum of optionality for achieving specific investor goals resulting in truly bespoke portfolios.

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How carbon markets bolster timberland investing

Thomas Sarno, global head of timberland investing, believes that now is an ideal time to invest in the asset class.

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What sets us apart

As the world’s largest natural capital investment manager,⁷ Manulife Investment Management's experience, size, and scale allow us to access a wider array of markets with reduced operating risk. We're uniquely positioned in our sector to accelerate the use of nature-based solutions in the fight against climate change.

Read about our 89,000-acre carbon-first timberland investment

Strategic management

We’re enhancing the management of our forests for climate and nature-positive outcomes to offer our investors opportunities to make an even greater impact.

Carbon expertise

Expertise in carbon strategies extends across our economic research, valuation, operations, and asset management teams and is combined with in-depth experience of compliance and voluntary markets. 

Positive impact 

Impact is central to our investment thesis, and third-party certifications and our carbon principles offer investors assurance that we're generating high-quality carbon sequestration and credits aligned with global best practices.

“At Manulife Investment Management, we believe carbon-focused investments can meet the needs of investors who are interested in offsetting or insetting carbon emissions and supporting other positive environmental or social impacts while aiming to generate competitive financial returns.”

Brian Kernohan, Chief Sustainability Officer, Private Markets

7 IPE research, as of January 29, 2024. Ranking is based on total natural capital assets under management (AUM), which include forestry/timberland and agriculture/farmland AUM. Firms were asked to provide AUM and the as of dates vary from December 31, 2022, to December 31, 2023.

Measuring our impact

We manage the assets under our care to ensure their optimal health because it's the right thing to do—and because there's no other way to do it.

Read about our approach to sustainability

 

We work with leading third-party carbon registries, sustainability certifications, research centers, and nonprofits to ensure environmental and social benefits across our timberland and agriculture assets.

All logos are registered trademarks of the respective organizations/firms represented. Manulife IM is prompting each of the ESG actions shown through becoming a member of the respective programs or a partner with the organizations on these endeavors.

Related viewpoints

Investing in the power of nature

The crisis facing the world’s biodiversity has become front of mind for policymakers and investors in recent years. Investing in natural capital—the world’s stock of natural resources that combine to yield a flow of benefits—represents an exciting investment innovation that can achieve a range of positive impacts and create opportunities outside of traditional investment silos.
Read more

Unlocking forest carbon opportunities

Carbon and timber value presents a spectrum of optionality: Our integrated property management team’s core focus on sustainability can enable forest carbon investment opportunities in addition to traditional timber value. Learn more.
Read more

Building confidence: ICVCM Core Carbon Principles Assessment Framework released

The ICVCM has detailed its assessment framework, which will serve as the initial bar for determining carbon credit quality. Meaningful implications for carbon markets are likely around the corner. We share our evaluation of this quarter’s publication.
Read more

View our full library of research

Related strategies

Timberland

Fully integrated, global, sustainable timberland investment solutions across a variety of tree species, age classes, and geographies

Learn more

Agriculture

Customized, vertically integrated, sustainable agricultural investment solutions across a variety of commodity types and geographies

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Contact us

Michael Strzelecki, CFA  

Managing Director, Timberland Investor Relations

+1 617-747-1501

mstrzelecki@manulife.com