• 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
BREAKING: No Public Finance for East Coast LNG Projects, Wilkinson Says July 4, 2022
‘Climate Math Gets Harder’ as Radicalized Supreme Court Upends U.S. Carbon Regulation July 4, 2022
Dire Living Conditions, Climate-Driven Heat Wave Produce Deadliest Human Smuggling Event in U.S. History July 4, 2022
Ex-Fossil Workers Convert Old Oilfields to Solar Farms After ‘Rapid Upskilling’ in Alberta June 29, 2022
London Becomes Biggest City to Sign Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty June 29, 2022
Next
Prev
Home Climate & Society Finance & Investment

Critics Pounce, HSBC Disavows Exec Who Cautions Against ‘Unsubstantiated, Shrill’ Climate Warnings

May 23, 2022
Reading time: 2 minutes
Primary Author: Compiled by The Energy Mix staff

Can Pac Swire/flickr

Can Pac Swire/flickr

1
SHARES
 

UPDATE: HSBC suspended Stuart Kirk after this story was published.

A senior executive at the HSBC bank is being roasted for his claim that central banks and other global authorities are overstating the financial risks of the climate emergency—and his employer is distancing itself from his remarks.

“Unsubstantiated, shrill, partisan, self-serving, apocalyptic warnings are ALWAYS wrong,” wrote Stuart Kirk, the bank’s head of responsible investing, in a conference presentation slide that showed climate warnings from the United Nations and the Bank of England.

“We’ve got inflation coming down the pipes and I’m being told to spend time and time again looking at something that’s going to happen in 20 or 30 years,” he told conference participants. “The proportionality is completely out of whack.”

HSBC disavowed Kirk’s statement, saying his views “did not reflect those of HSBC as a whole,” Reuters reports.

“HSBC regards climate change as one of the most serious emergencies facing the planet,” Nicolas Moreau, CEO of HSBC Asset Management, told the news agency, in an email conveyed by a spokesperson.

Climate campaigners were quick to respond.

“These comments are shocking and misinformed, but Kirk’s candour arguably cuts through the usual greenwashing PR and indicates the kind of conversations and thinking that is really going on behind the scenes in the financial sector with regards to the climate crisis,” Veronica Oakeshott, head of forests policy and advocacy at Global Witness, said in a release.

“The fact that this comes from the Global Head of Responsible Investing of all people makes me shudder to think what is going on in other parts of the business.”

Oakeshott stressed that the story “is not just about one bad apple executive” in a sector that “continues bankrolling deforestation, fossil fuels, and climate breakdown.” She said HSBC has financed fossil fuel operations worth US$110.7 billion since 2016 and supported deforestation deals estimated at $6.8 billion.

“Kirk’s comments are yet another urgent reminder that we cannot rely on the goodwill of financial institutions to voluntarily do the right thing,” she added. “We need governments to introduce legislation that makes it illegal for banks and asset managers to continue backing climate-wrecking companies.”

Jeanne Martin, campaign manager at responsible investment NGO Share Action, tweeted that Kirk’s comments “should raise red flags to any clients of HSBC that care about net-zero.” Bank on our Future senior campaigner Beau O’Sullivan stressed the material risk that climate change poses to financial assets, calling the comments “regressive and grossly flawed”.



in Climate Denial & Greenwashing, Climate News Network, Community Climate Finance, Finance & Investment, International Agencies & Studies

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

Wikimedia Commons
Oil & Gas

BREAKING: No Public Finance for East Coast LNG Projects, Wilkinson Says

July 4, 2022
43
angela n./flickr
United States

‘Climate Math Gets Harder’ as Radicalized Supreme Court Upends U.S. Carbon Regulation

July 4, 2022
40
opinion polling gender green recovery climate action
Media, Messaging, & Public Opinion

Conservative Women Far More Likely Than Men to Support Green Transition, EcoAnalytics Research Finds

July 4, 2022
46

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

opinion polling gender green recovery climate action

Conservative Women Far More Likely Than Men to Support Green Transition, EcoAnalytics Research Finds

July 4, 2022
46
U.S. Navy/picryl

Montreal to Host New NATO Climate Centre as Military Analyst Confronts Global ‘Hyperthreat’

July 4, 2022
45
Wikimedia Commons

BREAKING: No Public Finance for East Coast LNG Projects, Wilkinson Says

July 4, 2022
43
angela n./flickr

‘Climate Math Gets Harder’ as Radicalized Supreme Court Upends U.S. Carbon Regulation

July 4, 2022
40
Maurits90/Wikimedia Commons

San Francisco Commuter Train Derailed by Scorching Track Temperatures, Extreme Heat

July 4, 2022
30
Keith Hirsche

Ex-Fossil Workers Convert Old Oilfields to Solar Farms After ‘Rapid Upskilling’ in Alberta

July 3, 2022
457

Recent Posts

EdmondMeinfelder/flickr

Dire Living Conditions, Climate-Driven Heat Wave Produce Deadliest Human Smuggling Event in U.S. History

July 4, 2022
17
Adrian Grycuk/Wikimedia Commons

Youth Climate Case Moves to Top Tribunal in European Court

July 4, 2022
20
Seci/wikimedia commons

Saudi Aramco Talks Net-Zero, Plans to Boost Production Through 2035

July 4, 2022
11
Keith Weller/Wikimedia Commons

U.S. Methane Plan Gives Big Ag a Free Pass

July 4, 2022
13
Fadi Hage/wikimedia commons

Indoor Farming Revolution Comes with Significant Carbon Cost

July 4, 2022
16
Mont SUTTON snow terrain

Southern Quebec Towns Scramble for Solutions as Water Sources Dwindle

July 4, 2022
21
Next Post
@Olihorn1/Twitter

10 Dead, 300,000 Without Power as Sudden Storm Ravages Southern Ontario, Quebec

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}