Multinational investment bank HSBC announced that it will no longer finance new oil and gas projects in order to meet the green agenda goals of globalist elites.
The largest bank in Europe, which has nearly three trillion dollars in assets, has said that it will no longer finance new oil or gas fields to supposedly meet its commitments to achieving the UK government’s goal of reaching net zero carbon emissions by the year 2050. [emphasis, links added]
According to a report from the BBC, HSBC came to the decision after “follow[ing] consultation with leading scientific and international bodies”.
In 2020, the British bank already committed to investing £806 billion ($1 trillion) into supposedly green energy sources as well as committing to net zero.
However, the bank faced criticism from climate activists as it was revealed that it had pumped approximately £6.4 billion ($8.7 billion) into new oil and gas projects last year.
Hailing the move, the chief executive at climate finance campaign Make My Money Matter, Tony Burdon said: “It’s another nail in the coffin for fossil fuel expansion and a massive signal to other UK banks that the game is up on new oil and gas.”
As one of the world’s largest banks, HSBC has been a key figure in the adoption of ESG (environmental, social, and corporate governance) scores.
The scheme is a form of leftist activism in which financial investments are incentivized to take into account social and political positions that do not necessarily benefit their business, such as climate goals or the imposition of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion hiring practices.
Commenting on its ESG commitments, the bank has said: “We are powering new solutions to the climate crisis and supporting the transition to a low-carbon future. We are building an inclusive organization that prioritizes well-being, invests in learning and careers, and prepares our colleagues for the future of work.
“And we uphold high standards of corporate governance and ensure we meet our responsibilities to society.”
The bank has been criticized for the timing of the move to cut off all new oil and gas expenditures during one of the largest energy crises in decades — caused in no small part by European governments pursuing allegedly green forms of energy rather than reliable fossil fuel sources that have left their countries reliant on authoritarian regimes in the Middle East and Moscow.
Commenting on HSBC’s announcement, Brexit leader Nigel Farage mocked the bank for being “so virtuous and so wonderful,” saying:
“Not only is this another act of self-inflicted lunacy on the United Kingdom, cause we need people in those sectors, we need jobs, we need tax revenues, but we are going to have to use the gas and oil anyway, we’ll just import it from somewhere else under worse environmental standards than here.”
“This is the madness that has gripped the corporate world, it’s damaging our country,” Mr. Farage added, concluding: “We need a leader that stands up and says ‘enough!‘”
HSBC has also come under criticism for its close relationship with the world’s number one polluter, Communist China, even going so far as to de-bank pro-democracy activists and politicians in Hong Kong as well as supporting the imposition of the CCP’s draconian national security law, which has all but crushed the protest movement in the former British colony.
Read more at Breitbart
I wouldn’t trust my money to a bank that won’t acknowledge that wind and solar requires fossil fueled backup generators. Or to put it another way, politicians have crippled the power grid and are trying to prop it up with a rubber crutch. Cruel!
Shareholders should sue. A bank is not for politics nor virtue signalling , it’s to maximize profit. Clearly the ineffably stupid bankers haven’t done the sums about ‘renewables’ and their failure. Nor have they spotted the looming catastrophe when CO2 is not seen as a threat to the climate and all the expensive financing and infrastructure suddenly unwinds, leaving many deservedly broke. But that’s banks for you
Doing a fools tasks over a totaly fake threat watch them return to a primitive way
Liberal Environmentalism is he results of the usual load of malarkey we get from these frauds and the rest of the Eco-Freak crowd