By Joe Wallace

Another major bank is walking back climate commitments made when ESG was all the rage.

HSBC on Wednesday delayed by two decades a goal announced during the pandemic to eliminate greenhouse-gas emissions it is responsible for by 2030, setting a new target of 2050. Chief Executive Georges Elhedery blamed companies in HSBC's supply chain, saying the bank was well on track to reach net-zero emissions at its operations but that suppliers "have been more challenged".

Given that, HSBC would have had to rely heavily on carbon credits to be able to declare itself net-zero by the original target date, the bank said.

A more significant goal the bank laid out in 2020 was not to finance any greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050. That's the date by which the United Nations says the world needs to reach net-zero to limit global warming to less than 1.5 degrees Celsius.

HSBC said Wednesday it was reviewing its interim 2030 targets for financed emissions because the world was taking longer than it anticipated to move toward cleaner sources of energy. "Our influence on the decarbonisation of individual companies and the industries and economies in which our customers operate has limits," it added.

HSBC is still part of a United Nations-backed coalition known as the Net-Zero Banking Alliance. JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citigroup and several other big U.S. banks quit in recent months, reflecting a broad pullback by companies from environmental, social and governance-related initiatives.

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February 19, 2025 07:15 ET (12:15 GMT)

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