LONDON (Reuters) – HSBC’s main shareholders are calling on Europe’s largest bank to commit to cutting fossil fuel-linked lending and turning climate “intentions” into targets.
Collective investors managing around $ 2.4 trillion in funds have filed a resolution with the resolution to vote at HSBC’s annual general meeting, after HSBC in October set a goal of getting its zero carbon emissions by 2050.
That promise has been criticized by campaigners for not directly addressing HSBC’s lending to fossil fuel companies, including a relatively large segment of clients involved in the sector. coal.
“HSBC is strongly committed to tackling climate change, in line with our clear intentions to align the funding distributions of our total business portfolio to net zero by 2050 or sooner,” a spokesman for the bank said.
But after four years of involvement with HSBC, the investors, which were coordinated by the responsible investment group ShareAction and include Europe ‘s largest asset manager, Amundi, said that they wanted to see the bank go further.
“As Europe’s largest bank and the second largest provider of fossil fuel financing, HSBC has a unique opportunity to help steer the financial services sector towards Paris-related commitments rather than just resolutions,” said Jason Mitchell, Associate Chief Investment Officer at Man Group.
Investors urge HSBC to set short- and medium-term targets in line with the Paris climate agreement targets, which aim to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial norms before the middle of the century.
Supporters of the resolution include British hedge fund Man Group, Swedish insurance company Folksam and British pension scheme investor Brunel Pension Partnership, along with 117 individual shareholders.
The spokesman said HSBC would continue to communicate with shareholders and ShareAction about the details of its plans.
The HSBC resolution, the second such action taken against a major British lender, must be backed by 75% of the votes cast at its April meeting to pass.
ShareAction targeted Barclays with a similar move in May, which was knocked down but added up 24% of the votes cast.
Edited by Alexander Smith