Investing in Nature, Embracing Innovation | Climate Asset Management's Megan Reilly Cayten
“I’m very much a strong believer that the private sector can be a force for good.””
In the latest episode of The Point Cloud, Climate Asset Management's Megan Reilly Cayten brings over 20 years of experience in development, finance, and investment management to discuss the state of natural capital investing - and the technologies that help measure results.
The Point Cloud is Agerpoint’s interview series featuring leaders at the intersection of climate, agriculture, nature, and technology.
Watch the full interview above, watch and read highlights below, and listen and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform.
The Private Sector's Role
"The challenge that we see in our space is people who feel that you should always manage nature for nature's sake, in which case you wouldn't be generating financial returns, or people who feel that if you're seeking to do that, you aren't generating sufficient financial returns," observes Reilly Cayten.
However, she makes a strong case for private sector involvement: "The available capital that we have at a public level to preserve our ecosystems is just insufficient. And the private sector is very much involved in nature. Agricultural companies and others - our whole supply chains depend on it."
Exciting Technologies
"Agerpoint - and similar technologies that are able to use phone-based LiDAR to quantify carbon and also do biodiversity species recognition - to me is incredibly exciting," explains Reilly Cayten.
"One of the challenges in carbon projects is dispersed areas of trees outside forested landscapes, or working with smallholder farmers,” she notes. “It can be incredibly difficult to do the monitoring, reporting, and verification."
A solution lies in accessible technology: "Being able to give people on the ground technology that is pretty easy to use, and then support that with the technical assessment in the cloud to spit out results in terms of the growth of those species and the carbon that's present is incredibly valuable."
Reilly Cayten also highlights the power of remote sensing, acoustic monitoring and environmental DNA (eDNA).
Long-Term Vision
Reilly Cayten knows that investing in nature requires patience; Climate Asset Management’s strategies have timelines of 15 years or more. "We're subject to the laws of biology and physics and growth rates of trees in certain areas," she explains.
This long-term perspective is shared by their investors, including technology companies, who remain committed beyond the political winds of the moment.
"What gives me hope,” says Reilly Cayton, “is the people I work with, including our investors and the young, very motivated team at Climate Asset Management who are really committed to the mission of delivering financial returns for our investors, long-term, tangible benefits for climate, nature, and community, and proving that you can do both at the same time."
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