(TORONTO) – In reaction to the announcement that HSBC will no longer finance new oil and gas fields, Greenpeace Canada’s senior energy strategist Keith Stewart said:
“One of the world’s biggest banks has acknowledged that there’s no place for new oil and gas in a world that is trying to tackle the climate crisis. If Canadian bankers don’t follow suit on their own, then federal regulators should step in and make them. Shifting finance from fossil fuels to locally-controlled renewable energy systems will create good green jobs, fight climate chaos and put power back in the hands of Indigenous and other frontline communities.”
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Notes to editors:
- Today, HSBC updated its Energy Policy to Support Net Zero Transition to state “we will no longer provide new lending or capital markets finance for the specific purpose of projects pertaining to new oil and gas fields and related infrastructure when the primary use is in conjunction with new fields.”
- Greenpeace Canada has called on banks to end both the financing of new fossil fuel projects (what HSBC has done today) as well as new corporate level financing of companies expanding fossil fuel production and transportation (HSBC has not done this yet, but it is the next logical step).
- HSBC Canada is currently exempted from this policy, as it is in the process of being sold to RBC. Greenpeace Canada believes – at a minimum – that HSBC’s prohibition on project-level finance for new oil and gas fields and related infrastructure be extended to RBC (and other Canadian banks) as a condition of the merger.
For more information, please contact:
Keith Stewart, Senior energy strategist, Greenpeace Canada
[email protected] ; 416-659-0294
