Livelihoods Carbon Fund elected “Best Corporate Offsetting Programme 2016”

Livelihoods Carbon Fund elected “Best Corporate Offsetting Programme 2016”

Livelihoods Carbon Fund has been designated “Best corporate offsetting programme 2016” in the Voluntary Carbon Markets Rankings published by Environmental Finance, beginning of June 2016.

Environmental Finance Magazine has conducted its 6th annual rankings of the voluntary carbon markets in 2016. The rankings are based on a poll where around 1,000 companies of the wholesale carbon markets were asked to designate the leading project developers, traders, wholesalers, advisors, verifiers and other service providers in the carbon markets. Reasons which led to the election of the Livelihoods Carbon Fund included: benefits for local communities, scale of projects and ability to federate diverse partners.

“We are proud that our peers voted the Livelihoods Carbon Fund ‘Best Corporate Offsetting Programme’, says Bernard Giraud, President of Livelihoods Venture. “This award is a recognition of the efforts of our investors and partners to use the carbon economy as a lever to improve the livelihoods of rural communities”.

Livelihoods Venture currently manages two funds: Livelihoods Carbon Fund and Livelihoods Fund for Family Farming. The funds invest in projects in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Livelihoods Carbon Fund (LCF) has 9 on-going projects delivering tangible results. The projects are improving the livelihoods of one million people (revenues, health, empowerment) namely by planting 130 million trees and equipping 120 000 households with efficient cookstoves. The projects will sequester about 10 million tons of CO2 over twenty years.

Livelihoods Fund for Family Farming (L3F), launched in 2015, will invest 120 million euros over ten years and aims at positively impacting the lives of 2 million people by converting 200,000 farms to sustainable agricultural practices. Projects are currently being designed in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

“A major learning from the Livelihoods fund is that companies are able to join forces and work together to develop impactful solutions”, explains Pierre-André Térisse, Chairman of the board of the Livelihoods Carbon Fund. Twelve major companies have indeed invested in our two funds so far: Danone, Schneider Electric, Crédit Agricole S.A., Michelin, Hermès, SAP, Groupe Caisse des Dépôts, La Poste, Firmenich, Voyageurs du Monde, Mars Inc. and Veolia.

Livelihoods funds provide upfront financing to best-in-class NGOs to scale-up tested pilots. Projects are implemented over 10 to 20 years and returns to the funds are results-based to ensure tangible social, economic and environmental impact.

“This award also goes to the best-in-class NGOs who implement our projects in the field. Their great work, commitment and enthusiasm are wholly part of the success of our projects”, concludes Bernard Giraud.