'Incredible' News as Banking Giant HSBC Ditches New Coal, Tar Sands, and Offshore Arctic Drilling Projects

In another signal that “the era of fossil fuels is coming to a close,” Europe’s biggest bank, HSBC, announced Friday that it will no longer fund oil or gas projects in the Arctic, tar sands projects, or most coal projects.

The move was cheered by climate campaigners on social media, who said, “This is huge,” and called it “incredible news.”

According to Daniel Klier, group head of strategy and global head of sustainable finance at the financial giant, the bank recognizes “the need to reduce emissions rapidly to achieve the target set in the 2015 Paris Agreement to limit global temperatures rises to well below 2°C and our responsibility to support the communities in which we operate.”

The changes are laid out in HSBC’s updated energy policy, which says it will no longer provide financial services for

• a) New coal-fired power plant projects, subject to very targeted exceptions of Bangladesh, Indonesia and Vietnam in order to appropriately balance local humanitarian needs with the need to transition to a low carbon economy. Consideration of any such exception is subject to: (i) independent analysis confirming the country has no reasonable alternative to coal; (ii) the plant’s carbon intensity being lower than 810g CO2/kWh; and (iii) financial close on the project being achieved by 31 December 2023
• b) New offshore oil or gas projects in the Arctic
• c) New greenfield oil sands projects
• d) New large dams for hydro-electric projects inconsistent with the World Commission on Dams Framework
• e) New nuclear projects inconsistent with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) standards

The announcement, said Kelly Martin, director of Sierra Club’s Beyond Dirty Fuels Campaign, “is an important step forward for Europe’s largest bank, and yet another signal to Donald Trump and the rest of the world that, despite their worst laid plans, the era of fossil fuels is coming to a close. There is no future in Arctic fossil fuel operations. There is no future in tar sands. And there is no future in coal.”