• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
Celebrating our 1,000th edition. The climate news you need
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  FEATURED
EXCLUSIVE: Hydrogen is Up, Pieridae is Out as German Chancellor Preps for Canada Visit August 15, 2022
Historic Climate Bill Passes U.S. House, Goes to Biden for Signature August 15, 2022
BREAKING: U.S. Senate Passes Historic $369B Climate Package August 7, 2022
Researchers Point To ‘Dangerously Unexplored’ Risk of Global Climate Catastrophe August 2, 2022
Koch Network Pressures Manchin, Sinema as Advocates Praise ‘Game Changing’ Climate Deal August 2, 2022
Next
Prev

Mega-Shareholders Demand Real Net-Zero Action from HSBC

January 15, 2021
Reading time: 3 minutes

/NYU Stern

/NYU Stern

1
SHARES
 

A bloc of HSBC shareholders have filed a resolution urging Europe’s largest bank to stop funding the fossil industry, with coal at the top of the list. Among these activist investors are the world’s largest publicly-traded hedge fund company and Europe’s largest listed asset manager. 

Hedge fund firm Man Group PLC and asset manager Amundi SA are two of 15 institutional  shareholders which, in partnership with 117 individual investors, are supporting the resolution, reports Bloomberg Green. This phalanx of stakeholders, which oversees a combined US$2.4 trillion in investments, is being led by UK-based ShareAction, a group that previously guided a 2010 campaign by 6,000 pension fund shareholders to force colossal fossils BP and Shell to reveal their exposure risks associated with tar sands/oil sands operations. That resolution did not pass, but the campaign is considered a watershed moment in the use of so-called “pension power” to effect change.

Now, on behalf of the HSBC shareholders, ShareAction is asking the bank “to publish a strategy to reduce its exposure to fossil fuel assets and set targets in line with the Paris Agreement.” 

Along with a demand to reduce its exposure to coal, “the investors also asked HSBC ‘to consider the social dimension of the transition to a low-carbon economy’ when devising its strategy and to not ‘rely excessively’ on negative emissions technologies that remove carbon when developing targets,” writes Bloomberg.

The shareholder pressure comes three months after the London-based bank pledged to support the transition to a net-zero economy by prioritizing green financing and investments, a move that includes a “soft target” deadline of achieving a net-zero client portfolio by 2050.

Bloomberg adds that HSBC has also committed to making both its own operations and its supply chains net-zero by 2030.

Such commitments are long overdue, said ShareAction senior campaign manager Jeanne Martin. She noted that more and more investors are becoming aware of the extent to which the financial sector bankrolls the world’s biggest emitters.

What the HSBC shareholder resolution asks for, writes Bloomberg, are concrete details about how the bank plans to cut its exposure to fossils, details that are currently absent from its net-zero strategy.

“Such an ambition needs to be underpinned with a real transition plan and reflect the sense of urgency highlighted by climate science,” said Helen Price, stewardship manager at Brunel Pension Partnership, which has signed on to support the resolution. “Without a credible transition plan, the net-zero ambition isn’t a new and improved recipe for the bank, it’s just new packaging.”

Describing HSBC as “a critical player in emissions output and potential reductions,” Jason Mitchell, co-head of responsible investment at Man Group, told Bloomberg that if the bank commits to concretizing its ambition of being net-zero by 2050, it could “send an important signal to other fossil fuel financiers of the road ahead.”



in Climate & Society, Climate Action / "Blockadia", Community Climate Finance, Ending Emissions, Fossil Fuels, Insurance & Liability, International, Jurisdictions, Oil & Gas, UK & Europe

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

TGEGASENGINEERING/Wikimedia Commons
Energy Politics

EXCLUSIVE: Hydrogen is Up, Pieridae is Out as German Chancellor Preps for Canada Visit

August 15, 2022
1
/Pikist
United States

Historic Climate Bill Passes U.S. House, Goes to Biden for Signature

August 15, 2022
2
Brocken Inaglory/wikimedia commons
Severe Storms & Flooding

State-Wide Megastorm Driven by Global Heating Could Drench California for a Month

August 15, 2022
3

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

Early stages of construction on the Flamanville 3 nuclear reactor in France

Failing French Nuclear Plants Drive Up Electricity Costs as Heat Waves Cut Production

August 14, 2022
614
François GOGLINS/wikimedia commons

Corrosion Problem Shutters Half of France’s Nuclear Reactors

August 2, 2022
1.7k
Σ64/Wikimedia Commons

Global Push for Hydrogen Sidesteps Knowledge Gaps on Climate Impacts

August 11, 2022
347
Muramasa/Wikimedia Commons

Newfoundland Wind Farm Would Power Coastal Green Hydrogen Plant

July 17, 2022
720

Focus Blame for Climate Change on Fossils and Governments, Ecoanalytics Advises

August 11, 2022
154
Bernard Spragg/flickr

$12.3B in Profit over 3 Months as Big Fossils Reject Federal Emissions Cap

August 11, 2022
291

Recent Posts

TGEGASENGINEERING/Wikimedia Commons

EXCLUSIVE: Hydrogen is Up, Pieridae is Out as German Chancellor Preps for Canada Visit

August 15, 2022
1
/Pikist

Historic Climate Bill Passes U.S. House, Goes to Biden for Signature

August 15, 2022
2
Brocken Inaglory/wikimedia commons

State-Wide Megastorm Driven by Global Heating Could Drench California for a Month

August 15, 2022
3
Vinaykumar8687/WikimediaCommons

Solar On Track for ‘Staggering’ 30% Growth This Year

August 15, 2022
1
UK Black Tech/wikimedia commons

U.S. Tech Workers Leaving High-Paying Jobs to Focus on Climate Crisis

August 15, 2022
1
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Arctic Warms 4 Times Faster than Global Average, Surpassing Estimates 

August 15, 2022
1
Next Post
Americasroof /Wikimedia Commons

$85 Billion in Coal Investments Leave BlackRock Open to Charges of Greenwashing

The Energy Mix

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Navigate Site

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}