South Pole and AAGIM partner to reduce carbon emissions by developing agriculture-focused projects

South Pole and AAGIM (Australian Agribusiness Group Investment Management) announced a strategic partnership that will see the organisations working together to provide a holistic offering to tackle climate change by developing agriculture-focused projects that reduce carbon emissions.

Since 2006, South Pole has worked to accelerate the transition to a climate-smart society, preserve our precious ecosystems and improve lives around the world. Systematic change cannot be achieved single-handedly, so South Pole is working with partners who share the same commitment and vision for a more sustainable future.

South Pole's corporate clients have made ambitious net zero and decarbonisation commitments. As part of this, many of them seek to develop their own agriculture-focused carbon projects yet lack access to land. South Pole has identified an opportunity for AAGIM to procure land on behalf of its clients. The land procured will have the potential and eligibility for carbon abatement and biodiversity projects.

Similarly, AAGIM sees the evolving carbon markets as an opportunity to secure a higher return on investment across a diversified portfolio while managing operations and implementing sustainable agriculture practices.

Dr Tom Schroder, Head of Climate Action at South Pole, said, "By joining forces across our complementary areas of expertise, we can help scale agriculture-based projects in Australia and unlock value from our vast land assets, creating a compelling value offering to the market that will result in real, tangible climate outcomes. Execution is where many projects have challenges, and we want to ensure that our end-to-end service provision is designed to deliver results reliably for our clients".

"South Pole has a fantastic track record of helping companies truly decarbonize operations - now AAGIM will assist in providing a complete agricultural service offering to clients. Our view is that it's possible to decarbonise and generate a positive farm return on investment," says Marcus Elgin, Chief Executive Officer of AAGIM.

AAGIM will be responsible for shortlisting the properties that meet the clients' requirements and will look after the day-to-day management of the agricultural assets, including the execution of carbon projects - taking on the role of a traditional family farm.

South Pole's role as the carbon project developer will be to carry out a comprehensive feasibility study of the land to identify carbon project methods and co-benefits, such as increased productive capacity, and provide estimates of carbon abatement. The analysis also covers land tenure and legal compliance, risk analysis and mitigation strategies and estimates of project costs.

South Pole is seeking expressions of interest for this programme from companies with decarbonisation targets and capital to invest in Australia.