A top executive at HSBC Bank has been suspended after he criticized central bankers and policymakers for exaggerating the financial risks of climate change.
The bank, according to a Financial Times report, has suspended Stuart Kirk, who is global head of responsible investing at HSBC’s asset management division. Kirk gained attention at an event last week by accusing climate change alarmists of exaggerating the financial risks in an effort to “out-hyperbole the next guy.”
Speaking at a Financial Times conference on May 19, Kirk compared the climate crisis to the Y2K bug or Millennium bug, which was projected to create a massive computer malfunction at the turn of the year 2000.
During his 25-year banking career, Kirk said that “some nut job” was continuously lecturing him about the end of the world.
“Unsubstantiated, shrill, partisan, self-serving, apocalyptic warnings are ALWAYS wrong,” he wrote on a slide accompanying his speech. Kirk’s presentation was titled “Why investors need not worry about climate risk.”
Kirk’s statement was quickly condemned by several activists in the financial industry, who claim that climate change poses a serious threat to financial assets.
People familiar with the event’s planning told the Financial Times that the bank’s top executives had approved the presentation’s theme and content before Kirk’s address. However, the executives later distanced themselves from Kirk, stating that his remarks didn’t reflect the views of the bank and its asset management arm.
“I do not agree–at all–with the remarks made at last week’s FT Moral Money Summit,” Noel Quinn, group chief executive at HSBC wrote on LinkedIn.
“They are inconsistent with HSBC’s strategy and do not reflect the views of the senior leadership of HSBC or HSBC Asset Management. Our ambition is to be the leading bank supporting the global economy in the transition to net zero.”
Kirk’s comments come as banks and fund managers face increasing pressure to support the transition to renewable energy and defund the fossil fuel industry despite the growing global energy crisis.
By Emel Akan
