Biodiversity & nature: Infrastructure, protecting Biodiversity

Our engagement on biodiversity with our General Partners (GPs) dates back to 2023. Working closely with Stepstone we have focused on biodiversity risk, reporting and promoting the idea of Taskforce for Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD).

Ensuring GPs identify biodiversity risks in their portfolio, and report on their progress in mitigating such risks is essential. The work most GPs are doing to develop the required data and analysis will enable them to report. Positive steps are already showing through our conversations and interactions with the GPs.

Supply chain management is a key factor in protecting biodiversity, as resources are often sourced from areas where there are increased risks. This is a new area for many GPs, but our questions have been positively received, with indications given that this will also be reported on in future.

New biodiversity questions included in our Due Diligence Questionnaire have uncovered some interesting activities:

• Ardian performed a Biodiversity mapping exercise in Q1 2024 for the full Infrastructure portfolio to identify any overlap with protected areas.

• Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners introduced a Biodiversity Action Plan, which seeks to ensure biodiversity impacts are assessed and measured to protect and restore biodiversity.

• British Solar Renewables, an ICG portfolio company and a Brunel co-investment has committed to achieving a 60% biodiversity net gain (BNG) for each project. Their Nature Protection Pledge demonstrates their commitment to taking positive action for the planet.

• Little Crow, BSR’s recent acquisition of a 150MWp photovoltaic (PV) project co-located with a 60MW battery energy storage system exceeds the 60% minimum BNG targets, reaching 140%.