HSBC is ready to face pressure from shareholders and workers to strengthen its climate commitments.
The UK’s largest bank will be challenged in its annual general meeting in London on Friday to restore its commitment to Net Zero.
A representative of SharecoCtions, who campaigns for responsible investment, is planning to read a statement, signed by 30 investors after the lender weakened a major climate target earlier this year.
In its annual results published in February, HSBC revealed that it pushed back its target to reduce the planetary heating emissions caused by its operating and supply chain to 20 years.
The banking giant set an interim target in 2020 to achieve pure zero to his own operating and supply chain by 2030, where it was as a baseline year in 2019.
But now its goal will be to meet this target by 2050.
And in a step that could prove to be more important for its climate ambitions, HSBC also announced a review of its 2030 goals to reduce emissions due to the financing of polluting firms.
Groups of investors, including Nest Corporation, Trinity College Cambridge and Rathbones Investment Management, are calling from boards, asking to use their declared review of climate goals to manufacture in progress rather than Backtrack.
The bank is also facing allegations that it broke its own rules on coal financing by helping the mining giant Glencore raising a billion dollars (£ 0.75 billion).
An investigation published on Thursday from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) and The Independent found that in May 2023 the bank helped raise a billion dollars for Glencore, which had been increasing coal production for the last two years.
According to the report, it was promoting the “earliest” production of funding firms by the bank to prevent funding firms in 2021.
Jean Martin, head of the banking program at Shareaction, said: “After announcing a plan to release his Chief Stability Officer from his Executive Committee and review his climate goals and policies in February, HSBC has sent a deep indication about whether global summer is still one of its priorities to increase the financial risks.
“As one of the largest banks in the world with risk in Europe and Asia, HSBC is even more weak for climate risks than some of its European peers, such as the effects of extreme weather, which are already affecting the life and livelihood of communities around the world.
“Despite this, climate leadership is shown in the past by stopping finance for new oil and gas projects, responsible investors are now left in the dark how the bank has committed to play its important role in achieving the long -term prosperity of our global economy.
“This group of investors is calling the bank to immediately confirm that it will continue to start the process instead of retreating on its existing climate progress, and in conversation with shareholders. If the bank fails to do so, it should not expect the shareholders to remain silent.”
Shareco said that it would ask the bank to confirm the question to confirm that it is planning to continue in-tradition AGM, after recent reports that the bank is considering a fully online meeting.
The group plans to challenge the board on the impact of indigenous communities and environment on the environment in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas.
The HSBC board will answer the question of Shareaction in AGM.
On the TBIJ story, a spokesperson said: “We follow a clear set of stability risk policies that support our ambition to align funding emissions in funded emissions in our portfolio by 2050.
“We do not comment on customer relationships.”
PA has approached Glencore for comment.
