With close to $87 billion worth of financing fossil fuel companies since the Paris Agreement, HSBC is currently Europe’s second largest banker of coal, oil and gas producers [1]. As the bank is preparing for its digital AGM in London, the non-governmental organization Urgewald calls HSBC to phase out financing for fossil fuel companies and to publish the CO2 footprint of its portfolio.
Bank’s business deeply rooted in coal
The bank’s financing of coal plant developers currently amounts to a sizeable $8 billion. While the coal plant developers currently in the bank’s portfolio account for 383 Gigawatts of coal-fired capacity, the bank is also financing coal expansionists with plans for an additional 107 Gigawatts [2]. Two examples of HSBC’s dirty clients among coal companies and related projects are the German energy company RWE and the dredging of Payra Port in Bangladesh.
RWE is Europe largest CO2 emitter and leading producer of lignite. The company is infamous for its plans to clear-cut the Hambach Forest and surrounding villages to make space for a new coal mine in West Germany. Payra Port, once operational, would import coal for eight coal power stations which collectively would emit more than three times as much carbon dioxide as the whole of the UK did in 2018. An overview of fossil fuel companies and projects HSBC is invested in can be found on Urgewald’s website [3].
Bank’s financing almost doubled since Paris Agreement
A study released by the Rainforest Action Network in March 2020 reveals that HSBC’s financing of fossil fuels has almost doubled since the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015 [4]. This comes despite an overwhelming amount of evidence around the devastating effects of fossil fuel extraction and resulting emissions to public health, local environments and the global climate.
A number of European banks have recently come out with progressive climate policies and reliable coal phase-out dates. HSBC, however, has been working in the opposite direction, increasing its dependency on dirty energy producers. With COP26 scheduled to take place in Glasgow, the UK-based bank is faced with international attention as to whether it will align its business with the Paris Agreement or continue to increase its investments in harmful technologies.
Calling for HSBC to phase out fossil fuels
“While other European banks have led the way to COP26 in Glasgow and come forward with concrete phase-out dates, HSBC is still a climate gangster. Not only is HSBC lagging behind, they are actually doubling down on their financing of fossil fuel companies. We are demanding that HSCB publishes a phase-out plan for the financing of all fossil fuels, starting with the immediate exclusion of coal power companies,” says Katrin Ganswindt, Energy & Finance Campaigner at Urgewald.
Notes:
[1] According to the Rainforest Action Network’s March 2020 report Banking on Climate Change, Barclays is Europe’s biggest investor in fossil fuel companies, with HSBC being second and BNP Paribas third, https://www.ran.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Banking_on_Climate_Change__2020_vF.pdf
[2] Urgewald, Top Financiers of New Coal Power Development, Dec 2019 https://coalexit.org/sites/default/files/download_public/COP25_PR3.pdf
[3] Urgewald, HSBC’s Dirty Investments, April 2020, https://urgewald.org/hsbc-dirty-investments
[4] Rainforest Action Network, Banking on Climate Change, March 2020 https://www.ran.org/bankingonclimatechange2020/
