International Bank Offerring 100 Million for Climate Change

International Bank Offerring 100 Million for Climate Change



May 2007 - The financial institution HSBC today 
announced a five year, US$100 million partnership to respond to the 
"urgent threat" of climate change worldwide. Four partner organizations 
will share in the funding - The Climate Group, Earthwatch Institute, the 
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and the global conservation group 
WWF. 
Headquartered in London, HSBC is one of the world's largest banking and 
financial services organizations with 10,000 offices in Europe, the 
Asia-Pacific region, the Americas, the Middle East and Africa. 
At the London news conference held to launch the event this morning, HSBC 
Group Chairman Stephen Green said, "The HSBC Climate Partnership will 
achieve something profoundly important. By working with four of the 
world's most respected environmental organizations and creating a green 
taskforce of thousands of HSBC employees worldwide, we believe we can 
tackle the causes and impacts of climate change." 

HSBC Group Chairman Stephen Green introduces the new partnership with 
broadcaster and filmmaker Sir David Attenborough at a news conference in 
London. 
"Over the next five years HSBC will make responding to climate change 
central to our business operations and at the heart of the way we work 
with our clients across the world," Green said. 
Broadcaster and filmmaker Sir David Attenborough said at the launch, "As 
we increase the production of greenhouse gases, we face the very real 
prospect of causing irreversible damage to the Earth's more fragile 
ecosystems." 
"We are not powerless if we act now, collectively and decisively," 
Attenborough said. "We can significantly reduce the causes of climate 
change and greatly improve the chances of safeguarding for future 
generations the spectacular diversity of life on Earth." 
To initiate the partnerhip, HSBC will make the largest donations ever to 
each of these organizations and the largest donation ever made by a 
British company. 
Through its work with The Climate Group, the HSBC Climate Partnership will 
help five of the world's largest cities – Hong Kong, London, Mumbai, New 
York and Shanghai - respond to the challenge of climate change. 

London is one of the five cities to benefit from the HSBC Climate 
Partnership funding. 
Steve Howard, CEO of The Climate Group said, "Climate change is an 
increasingly urban issue. High summer temperatures, storms and rising sea 
levels will have more extreme impacts on city life. We have a short period 
of time left to take action. Many of the solutions lie in cities - 
concentrations of capital, decision makers, opinion formers and 
population." 
Based in the UK, the USA, and Australia, The Climate Group is a three year 
old nonprofit organization. Membership is open to companies, 
nongovernmental organizations, and local, regional and national 
governments. 
Howard said, "Through the HSBC Climate Partnership we will accelerate our 
program in five world cities, engaging the most influential businesses and 
city governments to lead a coalition of the willing against global 
warming." 
By working with WWF, the HSBC Climate Partnership will focus on the 
protection of large rivers from the impacts of climate change. Established 
in 1961, WWF operates in more than 100 countries funding some 2,000 
conservation projects. 
James Leape, director general of WWF International said, "Climate change, 
poor management and waste mean that water supplies around the world are 
more and more stressed." 

The world's longest transoceanic bridge is being constructed across part 
of the Yangtze River Delta. The Grand Hangzhou Bay Sea-crossing Bridge 
will be 36 miles long when complete in 2008. 
"The HSBC Climate Partnership will help WWF work towards better management 
of global water supplies, improve water security for about 450 million 
people, and reduce the impact of climate change on some of the world's 
most important rivers, including the Amazon, Ganges, Thames and Yangtze," 
Leape said. 
Through its work with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, the 
HSBC Climate Partnership will finance research on the world's forests that 
will measure carbon and the effects of climate change. 
Based in Panama, the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, STRI, will 
receive US$8 million as its part of the $100 million HSBC funding. A 
bureau of the Smithsonian Institution based outside of the United States, 
STRI is dedicated to understanding biological diversity. 
Founded in 1846, the Smithsonian Institution is administered and funded by 
the government of the United States and by funds from endowments, 
contributions, and profits from its shops and magazine. It is governed by 
a Board of Regents headed by Chancellor John G. Roberts, Jr., chief 
justice of the U.S. Supreme Court and Vice President Dick Cheney. 

The Panama rainforest 
Dr. Ira Rubinoff, director of STRI and acting under secretary of the 
Smithsonian Institution said, "The Smithsonian has studied tropical 
forests in Panama for nearly 100 years. We are setting up a network of new 
Global Earth Observatories, based on the longest-running standardized 
forest monitoring program, covering all the major tropical rainforest 
areas of the world." 
"HSBC's donation will enable the Smithsonian to deliver key scientific 
data in the hands of decision makers responsible for global carbon policy 
and water management," Rubinoff said. 
"The Earthwatch task is to bring together top scientists, HSBC staff, and 
local communities, to speed up the knowledge required to understand the 
complex issue of climate change and to make clear and firm 
recommendations," said Nigel Winser, executive director of Earthwatch 
Europe. 
Earthwatch will conduct a global program of research in five key temperate 
and tropical forest locations around the world - in China, India, Brazil, 
North America and the UK. 
Earthwatch is a 35 year old international environmental charity with 
offices in the UK, the USA, Australia and Japan. It works by matching 
conservation volunteers from around the world with suitable research 
projects. 

Nigel Winser, executive director of Earthwatch Europe 
Winser says Earthwatch will work with HSBC's entire global workforce. All 
staff will have access to an online-learning program, there will be 
volunteering opportunities on projects in local communities for 25,000 
HSBC staff, and 2,400 will join the Earthwatch team of scientists "for 
hands on research on our forest projects to gather critical climate change 
information," he said. 
"People need positive solutions to help them tackle climate change rather 
than messages of doom and gloom," Winser said. "Earthwatch is committed to 
inspiring action, not apathy." 
HSBC's Climate Partnership program sets forth targets and offers 
transformational support for the environmental organizations involved. The 
donations will help to deliver increased capacity, help the charities to 
expand across new countries and research sites, and increase their access 
to more people. 
The HSBC Climate Partnership builds upon the HSBC Group's previous US$50 
million, five year eco-partnership which concluded in 2006. 
Called Investing in Nature, that earlier program saw the Group partner 
with Botanical Gardens Conservation International, Earthwatch, and WWF. 
HSBC says that program saved more than 12,000 plant species from 
extinction, trained 200 scientists, sent 2,000 HSBC employees on 
conservation research projects worldwide, and protected freshwater 
resources in Brazil, China and the UK. 
The HSBC Group is named after its founding member, The Hongkong and 
Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, which was established in 1865 to 
finance the trade between China and Europe.    

       
      

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