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ShareAction filed a climate resolution at HSBC - here's why
You are not having a deja-vu: ShareAction, together with over 100 institutional and private co-filers, is filing of a shareholder resolution concerning climate change at a UK bank
It is 2021, and we are asking HSBC to come clean on how the bank is planning to reduce its involvement with the fossil fuel industry. Your instant reaction to this may be “but hasn’t the bank just announced that they will do just that as part of their commitment to Net zero by 2050?” And yes, they have. But while their commitment says they will reduce “the emissions [they] add to the atmosphere”, they haven’t told us how they are going to do that, not convincingly anyway. And that is the issue. Statements of ambition only go so far We saw a flurry of such announcements in 2020 – including a pledge to become carbon neutral from the world’s largest fossil fuel financier, JP Morgan. But without concrete steps to back up these ambitions, including a commitment to reduce financing of key fossil fuel actors, they are nothing short of a PR exercise. No doubt others will follow in 2021. We believe it is healthy for investors to send the message that it is just not enough. Next you might ask “isn’t HSBC doing a lot more than other banks regarding the greening of finance?” Again, yes, they are. Our own ranking of European banks last year put them near the top. The bank is doing well when it comes to governance structures and the provision of low-carbon financing. Unfortunately, the HSBC is also financing a lot of ‘high-carbon’ activity. HSBC and fossil fuels HSBC is Europe’s second-biggest finance provider for the fossil fuel industry,…