Investing to enhance and restore our natural capital
We help our clients enhance and restore the world’s natural capital. We do this by investing in nature-based solutions to support climate goals, protect ecosystems, and promote human wellbeing and biodiversity. Returns are generated from timber, carbon, land appreciation and other associated nature-based revenues.
Enabling a tangible path to net zero
Residual carbon is inevitable in virtually all operational businesses. Nature-based carbon removal solutions are key enablers to reach net zero ambitions. They can be used in partnership with operational decarbonisation by corporates, public institutions and pension funds.
Measured positive nature and social impacts
Investments in natural capital can drive sustainable economic growth by creating green jobs and income for those often living in rural areas. Moreover, investing in nature-based solutions supports diverse species and enhances ecosystem resilience by protecting and restoring ecosystems.
Diversification and alternative green investments
Natural capital assets can offer sustainable, long-term returns. These come via diversified income streams - such as from land value appreciation and the sale of ecosystem services such as carbon and timber. They also offer low correlation to traditional asset classes, reducing overall portfolio volatility.
Creating value for and from nature
Our team’s technical expertise combines deep understanding of real assets investments, net zero pathways, carbon markets and nature-based solutions. We follow deep due diligence processes to deploy capital into high-integrity natural capital projects and nature-based solutions. We focus on targeted locations and project types, gaining deep knowledge of local markets and building strong relationships with development partners to create diversified portfolios of assets.
We also engage actively, both domestically and internationally, through our macro stewardship teams to ensure policy conditions support the prioritisation and scale-up of nature restoration and recovery.
Natural capital
Natural capital refers to the world's stock of natural resources, which includes elements like geology, soils, air, water and all living organisms.
Nature-based solutions
Nature-based solutions (NbS) are projects that utilise natural processes and ecosystems to restore our natural capital. They can also be used as alternatives to grey infrastructure in the traditional engineering sense.
Ecosystem services
Ecosystem services are the essential goods and services that we get from our natural capital and natural world that support human life and economic activities.
Note: Targets and outcomes are not guaranteed and may not be achieved.
The circle of investments in nature
Investing in nature-based solutions projects improves and restores our natural capital stocks, bringing value to society due to our reliance on nature and its ecosystem services. Carbon, timber and other commodities are the market mechanisms that assign value to these ecosystem services, making them investable.
Investment insights
Investment thinking that brings together the collective insight of Aviva Investors’ teams from across the globe on the key themes influencing markets.
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MegaTRENDs: Why TRENDs matter for investing in private markets
27 Jun 2025
A set of megatrends is reshaping the world, creating new opportunities and risks for investments in private markets.
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Decarbonising agriculture: Unlocking investment in sustainable land use
17 Jun 2025
Agriculture is integral to reaching net-zero emissions and reversing nature loss. Its transition also presents huge investment opportunities. We held a roundtable of experts to discuss challenges and solutions.
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Sovereign engagement: Driving positive change while delivering long-term value
14 May 2025
Investor engagement with governments on their climate commitments can be a powerful complement to other forms of stewardship. It can also help investors identify opportunities and mitigate risks, says Thomas Dillon.
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Climate Stewardship 2030 programme
29 Apr 2025
Designed to support our holistic stewardship approach, Aviva Investors adopted its Climate Stewardship 2030 programme (CS30) in 2024.
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Decarbonising power: Challenges and solutions
28 Apr 2025
Decarbonising power is essential to provide affordable, clean energy and deliver net zero ambitions. It also brings significant investment opportunities. We convened a range of industry experts to discuss the barriers and how to overcome them.
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2025 voting trends: Four themes to watch
17 Mar 2025
As AGM season gets under way, we look at the key trends that will shape resolutions and lay out our guiding principles for voting.
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Transition finance: How the UK can lead as transition finance reshapes investing and economies
18 Feb 2025
As a member of the UK’s newly formed Transition Finance Council, Mark Versey explains why and how a transition finance lens can transform investing.
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Decarbonising buildings: Five barriers and how to overcome them
28 Jan 2025
The built environment generates almost two-fifths of global emissions, but decarbonising the sector will require a coordinated effort. We brought together experts across the value chain to discuss shared challenges and solutions.
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Patterns, partnerships and a Marshall Plan for the planet: An interview with Nigel Topping
21 Sep 2022
The UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for the COP26 summit in the UK sets out how the private and public sectors can work together to tackle the climate crisis and other systemic threats. Words by Miles Costello.
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Ring the changes: An interview with Kate Raworth
16 Sep 2022
The influential academic speaks to AIQ about the flaws in traditional economic thinking and how her revolutionary “Doughnut” offers a fresh approach to solving the world’s greatest problems.
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Moving mountains and markets: A new way to approach systematic risk
14 Sep 2022
A series of market failures have brutally exposed the shortcomings of Modern Portfolio Theory. However, market participants play an active role in markets; they are not mere bystanders. Understanding this could provide a better way to think about and deal with systematic risk.
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The levers of change: A systems approach to reconcile finance with planetary boundaries
13 Sep 2022
Financial services underpin all economic activity, which itself depends on Earth’s natural capital. Resolving their interconnected issues to bring about a just transition will require a holistic, systems-thinking approach.
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Redefining stewardship: Why stakeholder capitalism needs to wake up
31 Aug 2022
Asset managers and other financial institutions have a duty to act in the best interests of their customers and society. Macro stewardship will be crucial to meeting these responsibilities, argues Mark Versey.
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Know your limits: An interview with Nafeez Ahmed
29 Aug 2022
Warnings that natural systems are close to breaking point are not new – but how will we respond? Combining what we know with existing technologies could offer a remarkable opportunity to rethink our world, as Nafeez Ahmed explains.
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The burning issue: Avoiding ESG fatigue
25 Aug 2022
How can we face existential problems and stay positive? Abigail Herron contemplates simple steps to protect momentum and avoid burnout.
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Strategies to change the financial system: An interview with Natalie Mangondo
16 Aug 2022
Can society reform the system that has enabled growth but simultaneously brought the long-term health of the planet into question? UN Climate Change High Level Champions Finance Youth Fellow Natalie Mangondo contemplates choices and change with AIQ.
Private Markets Study 2025
In the seventh edition of the study, we collected the views of 500 institutional investors around the world. We delved into some of the key questions facing private market investors today: Why do they invest in private markets? How do they expect the asset classes to perform over the next few years? What are the biggest barriers to investing today? And how do they incorporate sustainability?
House View
No one can predict the future. But our quarterly House View sets out the collective wisdom of our investment teams on the current state of global markets – and where they might be heading.
Key risks
Investment and currency risk
The value of an investment and any income from it can go down as well as up and can fluctuate in response to changes in currency and exchange rates. Investors may not get back the original amount invested.
Illiquid securities risk
Certain assets held in the fund could, by nature, be hard to value or to sell at a desired time or at a price considered to be fair (especially in large quantities), and as a result their prices could be very volatile.
Sustainability risk
The level of sustainability risk to which the fund is exposed, and therefore the value of its investments, may fluctuate depending on the investment opportunities identified by the investment manager.
Natural capital team
Meet our natural capital investment team.
Greta Talbot-Jones
Director, Natural Capital / Portfolio Manager, Carbon Removal Fund
Zoe Austin
Portfolio manager
Kiran Sehra
Nature Specialist
Viktor Dietrich
Research Director
Explore
Private markets
As one of Europe’s largest private markets investment managers, we have the scale to access the full depth and breadth of private markets. Find out more about our other private markets capabilities.
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