HSBC Holdings

Does the core business genuinely avoid or reduce emissions, or build climate resilience? Share of revenue that is actually 'green'. Fossil-dependent models score low.

HSBC's core business remains dominated by fossil-fuel financing — at least $192 billion into coal, oil, and gas since Paris, with 2024 fossil fuel financing rising 35% year-on-year, and for every unit directed to fossil fuels between 2021–2024 only 46p went to renewables and grids; sustainable finance flows are real but dwarfed by the financed-emissions profile.

Credible, science-based targets (SBTi), a real net-zero plan with progress to date, and CDP disclosure — not just a dated press release.

HSBC exited the SBTi validation process, quit the Net-Zero Banking Alliance in July 2025, delayed its operational net-zero goal by 20 years (from 2030 to 2050), and replaced fixed 2030 sectoral financed-emissions cuts with looser target ranges — including dropping its oil-and-gas target from a fixed 34% to a 14–30% range — earning widespread criticism from ShareAction and Reclaim Finance as a clear retreat.

Operational footprint, labour and social practices, and governance quality across the company's own operations and supply chain.

Operationally, HSBC has reduced Scope 1 and 2 emissions by more than 80% since 2019 and is a RE100 member, but governance quality has deteriorated sharply: sustainability leadership was removed from executive-level representation in 2024, the chief sustainability officer resigned, and the bank's own coal-financing policies were repeatedly violated in 2023 and 2024.

Quality of disclosure, independent third-party verification, and how much hard data backs the company's claims.

HSBC publishes detailed Net Zero Transition Plans, TCFD-aligned reports, and claims third-party assurance for operational emissions; however, it counts sustainability-linked bonds for major polluters (including a floating oil-drilling platform provider and a cement giant emitting more CO2 than Greece) as 'sustainable finance,' and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism found it classifying fossil-fuel-linked finance under that label — undermining the credibility of its headline numbers.

Controversies, litigation, pollution, fossil-fuel lobbying, conflict-zone involvement and governance scandals. Higher means cleaner.

HSBC was the first UK bank to have ads banned by the ASA for greenwashing (2022), helped raise over $47 billion for fossil-fuel-expanding companies despite net-zero pledges, bulldozed its own coal financing restrictions with deals for Glencore (2023) and an Indian steel company (2024), simultaneously weakened its Sustainability Risk Policies Framework in 2025 by removing exclusions for unconventional oil and gas prospective clients, and exited both SBTi and NZBA — a compounding record of integrity failures.