News

Climate Campaigners' HSBC Call

Wednesday April 3 2019

^{Helen Walker and Liz Walkington of Cambusbarron Parish Church at the HSBC branch in Stirling.}

Christian Aid supporters from Cambusbarron Parish Church in Stirling visited the city’s HSBC branch to deliver a letter to their CEO urging the bank to stop financing fossil fuels.

They visited the Murray Place branch of HSBC as part of a national action by Christian Aid to visit every branch in the UK to call on the global bank to ensure its activity is in keeping with the Paris Agreement’s target of keeping global warming well under 2˚C.

Campaign supporter Liz Walkington from Cambusbarron Parish Church said: “Climate change is making life even harder for people around the world living in extreme poverty. As one of the world’s biggest banks we are concerned that HSBC continues to fund coal power projects in Vietnam, Indonesia and Bangladesh. We’ve not done anything like this before, but we wanted to play our part in Christian Aid’s ‘Big Shift’ campaign to visit every branch in the UK during Lent. There are ten branches in Scotland and we really hope our letter handed in at the Stirling Branch reaches their CEO John Flint and has an impact.”

Diane Green, Campaigns Officer with Christian Aid Scotland, said: “Leading scientists such as the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change tell us the situation is becoming critical. We must do everything we can to make sure that those who are financing dirty fossil fuels are held to account.

“HSBC has agreed to invest $100billion in sustainable financing by 2025. This is fantastic. But it is still investing in fossil fuels which are destroying habitats and lives.

“We want HSBC to use its position as a major bank to lead the way and close the gap between its rhetoric and its actions.

“The campaign coincides with the new Scottish Climate Change Bill, which is going through Holyrood at the moment, with charities including Christian Aid calling for it to include a target of net zero emissions of all greenhouse gases by 2045”.