On May 20, Stuart Kirk, Global Head of Responsible Investments for the mega-bank HSBC (2021 assets $2.9 trillion, 2021 profits $12.6 billion), gave a speech at a Financial Times (ahem) “Moral Money” conference. The talk was titled “Why investors need not worry about climate risk.”
Mr. Kirk, whose job with the bank “involves considering the impact of investments on environmental, social and governance issues,” told his audience of investors: “There’s always some nut job telling me about the end of the world,” as he re-emphasized to his listeners that letting trivial matters like ethics and preserving the planet as a livable space should not get in the way of the really important things in life, like profits. After all, as Kirk observed: “Who cares if Miami is six metres underwater in 100 years? Amsterdam has been six metres underwater for ages and that’s a really nice place.” Obviously, somebody did care and Kirk was promptly “suspended” from his job at the bank.
Noel Quinn the CEO said regarding Kirks views, “They are inconsistent with HSBC’s strategy and do not reflect the views of the senior leadership of HSBC or HSBC Asset Management.” Nuno Matos, CEO of HSBC’s “wealth and personal banking” operations, promptly chimed in saying he was “in complete agreement” with Quinn and that “the transition to net zero is of utmost importance to us.”
Right. Sure. No word from either big exec about who hired Kirk in the first place. Obviously, the guy somehow slipped through the cracks of the stringent screening process that prevents any but the most ardent eco-warriors from becoming Global Head of Responsible Investments at HSBC. Maybe it was the beard. As Kirk said in his talk, “I do have a beard which is my one sop to responsible investing.” Such a clever disguise would certainly fool those hippie tree-huggers running HSBC.
Obviously, the drivel from the top is damage control. Like most banks, HSBC has increased investment in fossil fuels, despite “commitments” (Translation: advertising copy or greenwashing) to do the opposite. Don’t forget that HSBC has also been in the news over the last few years after their business model of laundering drug money came to light. Canada’s big six banks have made a similar promise to net zero, yet went ahead and lent $10 billion to finance construction of the Trans Mountain pipeline. After all, like all capitalist enterprises, HSBC exists to make profits. They aren’t there to save the planet, or keep your kids off drugs, or anything else useful to humanity, except, of course, in the happy fantasies created by the ad agencies they hire. They are there for profit, private profit and the public be damned.
Let’s be clear: Kirk was suspended for saying this stuff in public. These statements should only be trotted out in the climate-controlled confines of board rooms, country clubs or limousines. Letting the riffraff know what you really think is bad for business. After all, folks in India and Pakistan, who were sweltering in an “unprecedented” heat wave as Kirk spoke, might have a slightly different take on the seriousness of the climate crisis. And those pesky scientists might stir up the peons with their alarming forecasts to the point that something might be done that would cost the company an extra nickel in profits.
There is still time to turn things around, but only if the working people of the entire world band together to create a system that defines “profit” as something that benefits more than people like Kirk whose greed and willful blindness is on track to destroy us all.
