The International Climate Tribune

  I'm an entrepreneur and climate finance practitioner, passionate about development issues and engaged in impact investment in forest conservation and rural development, with special attention to the Andes Amazon region.  
 

I was born and raised in Lima until my 20th anniversary when I moved to France. I studied humanities in Peru (Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru), and social sciences (sociology, anthropology, economics) & environmental economics in France (Université de Bordeaux, Université Paris Dauphine).
 

I'm interested in international relations, public policy, international business, finance, and entrepreneurship. I'm also a passionate about literature (particularly novels and literary criticism of Mario Vargas Llosa), and history, particularly Peruvian history of the time of the conquest of Peru by the Spaniards, the independence wars, the Pacific War (between Bolivia, Chile & Peru), early republican history and the history of modern Peru, with special interest in dictatorships, the rise and fall of the Shining Path, corruption and the failure of the Peruvian state. 

Professionally, I started my career with huge luck as an apprentice originator at the Danone Fund for Nature. I was blessed with that opportunity that changed my life, opening my pathway to forest conservation, rural development, and carbon. 

The Danone opportunity led me to another very structuring period in my life, for which I'm very grateful, as a developer of REDD+ and agroforestry projects at the leading Peruvian NGO AIDER. This was a wonderful time, combined with a lot of field work, learning to do project designing, budgeting, learning the complexities of the forestry GHG accounting, protected areas management, cocoa-based agroforestry, and social engagement with communities. 

The AIDER opportunity opened the most meaningful of my former experiences: I had the privilege to be a founding-team member, then partner and Latam Director at the Althelia Climate Fund (ACF), the pioneer climate & natural capital investment fund success story, today part of Mirova/Natixis Investment Managers. Those were the golden years, where I was given a ton of money to invest it in projects that make real impact. I did a few with AIDER, and with others, like my friends of CIMA, Fundaeco, ICV, and many more. I proved myself that I could jump from a very local job to a global position, and growth beyond my own expectations. I'll never forget the opportunity and the mandate I was given. I carry many friends and partners with me from that time, and it continues to be a very structuring and inspiring period of my life. 

Most recently, I accepted probably the hardest of my professional assignments to date, professionally and personally. I was honoured to be asked to join the team that was charged with the 

creation and early development of the nature-based solutions investment unit of TotalEnergies, the oil, gas and renewable energy French Major, based in Paris and with a mandate for Latin America. To leave my comfort zone, wonderful bosses, supporting investors, great partners, amazing colleagues, and endearing friends, for a big and challenging corporate job wasn't easy. I was impressed by the magnitude of the assignment, and my good old tricks didn't work as they previously did, so I needed to learn new tricks and reinvent myself, trying to keep the essence of my mission: to mobilise large amounts of cash to the projects and developers I care. I passed from being a key team member managing a budget of US$100 million in investment power in 8 years to be a key team member of a team managing US$100 million per year (!!!), a totally different scale. 

I'm both honoured and very grateful for that opportunity which helped me grow a lot. I proved myself of what I'm capable to do, I learnt what I was good at and for what I wasn't. I tested my capabilities, my limits, and (re) discover my true nature of entrepreneur. 

To be a climate and biodiversity investor in a fossil fuel burning giant is a complex task, personally, philosophically, internally in the company and externally to the world. However, I defend and I'm proud of my time at TotalEnergies and I support them and encourage them to do more. I learnt to have the courage to think by myself and take difficult decisions despite the stadium tribune telling you to play the game otherwise. 

Currently, I'm a proud founder & CEO of FRONTERRA, a Franco-Peruvian nature-based solutions project development start-up. Our mission is noble: to build long-term nature-based carbon-capturing real assets that help to mitigate and adapt to the climate and biodiversity crisis. We use the tools of the carbon finance profession to make it happen, and we are gathering expertise in a remarkable way. Our story is still be told; we are on the early days. You'll guess business is tough, especially in the social business/impact investment world. However, our passion is limitless, and I hope you'll learn more about the wonderful work we do.

The International Climate Tribune is an old non-for-profit journalistic venture, relaunched now with a new branding and new ideas. I started it in 2018 while at Althelia, right after we sold the business to Mirova. I wanted, as a chronicler, to register what I saw in the communities and projects we supported with the Althelia Climate Fund money we invested, to share the powerful stories of rural landscapes positive transformation and the magic of climate financing. I paused the project for several years as I changed jobs and was busy with raising a family. 

But I'm back. Not because my family doesn't need me anymore, at the contrary. However, I think there are stories that deserve to be told, stories which are needed to be known, to clarify the confused climate and biodiversity project development and project finance world that we live in. The public and users are very much confused, much due to the wave of newcomers who arrive with the recent carbon bubble that recently exploded [before it was really born?]. Each of them comes with a different opinion and assessment of the issues to solve, and of course, with a different secret magic solution, which at the end result in a set of new different problems, and with a very fragmented profession. I feel the climate and biodiversity narrative is currently being shaped by certainly good people with good intentions, but with very limited experience. My grandmother used to say, very often, that "hell is made of good intentions". Thus, I wanted to provide a tribune for experienced people, with concrete track record, to share their experience, the experience that only time gives you.  
 

From my Peruvian years at the Catholic University, in addition to wonderful professors and endearing colleagues, I keep close to my heart our moto "Lux lucet in tenebris", which is a Latin phrase that translates to "light shines in darkness."
 

I hope the International Climate Tribune will be that light, helping you to reflect and guide your action in the current darkness.

Juan Carlos Gonzalez Aybar