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Chad Bray

Shareholders and climate activists challenged HSBC over its policies to reach net-zero in its loan portfolio at a fiery annual meeting in London on Friday.
Annual meetings can often be quite lively in Britain, with campaigners planning elaborate protests, including fancy dress costumes and props. But social distancing restrictions to control the coronavirus pandemic in the United Kingdom have restricted attendance in recent years.
Friday’s meeting was no exception, with climate activists wearing top hats and drinking out of champagne flutes outside the meeting venue. Later, about a dozen activists in the audience disrupted the meeting for almost five minutes by singing a parody of ABBA’s “Money, Money, Money”.
“We believe that we can make the most significant impact by working with our customers to support their transition to a net zero future,” Mark Tucker, the HSBC chairman, said. “We intend to set targets on a sector-by-sector basis that are consistent with net zero outcomes by 2050. We are particularly focused on supporting our carbon intensive clients to do this.”


HSBC, one of Hong Kong’s three currency-issuing banks, has said it would provide up to US$1 trillion in transition financing and investment to clients by 2030 as it seeks to reduce financed emissions in its portfolio to net zero by 2050.
Last year, the London-based bank also committed to ending financing of coal mining and coal-fired power plants in the European Union and countries that make up the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) by 2030, and a decade later elsewhere. It has not financed a new coal plant since 2018, according to CEO Noel Quinn.
However, some climate campaigners have said that is not enough and the bank should completely end its relationship with oil and gas providers and other companies that produce substantial greenhouse gases.
Banks have been a target for some more extreme activists in recent months, with members of the Extinction Rebellion group shattering windows at HSBC’s headquarters in Canary Wharf last week. Members of the group have chained themselves to gas pumps and glued themselves to the road to stop gas tankers.
“The future will be defined by the single greatest challenge of our time – the need for the world to transition to net zero. This is both a huge challenge and a huge opportunity,” Quinn said. “We are committed to working with our clients globally to develop valid, science-based transition plans to understand – sector-by-sector, client-by-client – how we move to net zero by 2050.”
On Friday, the Financial Times reported that the UK’s advertising watchdog had issued a draft recommendation that two of the bank’s advertisements had misled customers about its climate policies because it continued to finance substantial greenhouse emitters.
“There is significant evidence yet to be assessed in this case and no decision has been reached on whether HSBC has breached the advertising rules,” a spokesman for the Advertising Standards Authority, the UK regulator, said. “We will publish our findings in due course.”
HSBC declined to comment on the ASA review, saying it was an ongoing matter.
“We have an ambitious plan to support a global transition to net zero and are acting now to reduce our financed emissions,” a HSBC spokeswoman said.
Whilst climate issues dominated much of the shareholder questions, investors also pressed HSBC board members on several other issues, including investments held by its asset management arm in Russian energy companies and a long-running dispute over clawbacks of a portion of pensions paid to retirees of Midland Bank, which HSBC bought in 1992.
This week as part of its first-quarter results, the bank said it was complying with international sanctions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its Russian operation, which mostly supports multinational companies, is not taking new business or customers and is “consequently on a declining trend”.
HSBC’s asset management arm has suspended dealing in its Russian oil funds and equity funds tied to Russia, Tucker said. However, international investors have been excluded from the Russian stock markets, meaning it is taking time to exit positions and sanctions also are restricting some sales, he said.
One investor also asked whether the bank lobbied Hong Kong officials to end severe travel and social distancing measures under the city’s zero-Covid policies after a fifth wave of the virus forced many of the city’s bank branches to close until recently.
“We make every effort to inform, to encourage, to give suggestions to the government on this,” Tucker said. “You can rest assured we have done this.”


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Campaigners argue HSBC should stop financing fossil fuel companies entirely
Climate activists gathered outside meeting venue wearing top hats and drinking out of champagne flutes



Campaigners calling for HSBC to end its financing of fossil fuels interrupted the bank’s annual meeting in London.


Climate activists disrupt HSBC’s annual meeting over net-zero policies, sing parody of ABBA’s ‘Money, Money, Money’

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;} Campaigners argue HSBC should stop financing fossil fuel companies entirely Climate activists gathered outside meeting venue wearing top hats and drinking out of champagne flutes

Campaigners argue HSBC should stop financing fossil fuel companies entirely

Climate activists gathered outside meeting venue wearing top hats and drinking out of champagne flutes