HSBC backs climate change partnership
30/05/2007 - 13:46:14The UK’s biggest bank HSBC today pledged to donate US$100m (€71m) as part of an initiative to tackle climate change.
HSBC has formed a five-year, global partnership in conjunction with The Climate Group, Earthwatch Institute, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and the WWF in a bid to address some of the causes and impacts of climate change.
It said the donation will be the biggest ever made by a British company and will help the charities expand their global reach.
As part of the initiative the HSBC Climate Partnership will conduct one of the biggest ever field experiments on the world’s forests to measure the impact of climate change.
It has also promised to fund efforts to protect some of the world’s major rivers, including the Amazon, Ganges, Thames and Yangtze, from the impact of climate change, while working with some of the world’s major cities to help them respond to the challenges of global warming.
The banking giant said it will also look at its working practices closer to home and move to stem its impact on the environment.
HSBC chairman Stephen Green said: “Climate change is a real and present threat.
“By working with four of the world’s most respected environmental organisations and creating a ’green taskforce’ of thousands of HSBC employees worldwide, we believe we can tackle the causes and impacts of climate change.”
The HSBC Climate Partnership builds on its previous five-year “Investing in Nature” eco-partnership, which concluded last year.
Today’s announcement comes as businesses are increasingly placing importance on the need to address environmental concerns.
A report last year by former World Bank chief economist Nicholas Stern said failure to tackle climate change could see world temperatures rise by up to five degrees Celsius by 2100, causing severe floods and droughts and displacing as many as 200 million people.
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