Europe’s largest bank has joined the list of global investors retreating from new financial commitments in the fossil fuel industry, including investments in oil-rich Alberta. HSBC, whose global assets total more than $2 trillion, announced Friday that as the climate change crisis deepens, it will no longer finance new coal-fired power plants (with a few targeted exceptions), Arctic drilling or new oilsands projects, including pipelines. The announcement comes as part of strengthened “energy policy” that aims to help customers transition to a low-carbon economy in a sustainable way, while “closing relationships with those who do not meet minimum standards.” “We recognize the need to reduce emissions rapidly to achieve the target set in the 2015 Paris Agreement to limit global temperature rises to well below 2 degrees Celsius, and our responsibility to support the communities in which we operate,” said Daniel Klier, HSBC’s global head of sustainable finance, in […]