On July 11, 2025, HSBC officially announced its withdrawal from the Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA), becoming the first major British bank to withdraw from NZBA after many banks in North America, Australia and Japan withdrew.

Although HSBC stated that it would continue to adhere to the 2050 net zero target and participate in the broader Glasgow Net Zero Finance Alliance (GFANZ), this decision was still denounced by environmental organizations as "a retreat from the bank's climate priority."

The Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) is a component of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ). It was established in 2021 and is part of the United Nations-backed "Climate Action Finance Alliance" to promote global financial institutions to achieve zero carbon emissions from their members' loans and investment portfolios by 2050.

HSBC's withdrawal is not an isolated incident. Since the end of 2024, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Australia's Macquarie Group and others have successively announced their withdrawal from NZBA.

The core pressure that triggered this round of withdrawal came from the change in the political wind in the United States. After Trump was elected, opposition to ESG was quite common among Republican politicians.

Faced with the loss of members, NZBA urgently revised the framework in April 2025 to try to retain members and made a key concession: deleting the clause that forced banks' investment and financing activities to comply with the 1.5℃ temperature control target.

This compromise was a helpless move. However, the softening of the rules failed to stop HSBC.

HSBC's withdrawal was foreshadowed, and a series of internal adjustments have foreshadowed its climate priority downgrade:

- Target postponement: In February 2025, HSBC announced that it would postpone its 2030 operation and supply chain net zero target by 20 years to 2050, and review the medium-term emission reduction targets of high-carbon industries such as energy, citing the global decarbonization rate as "slower than expected".

- Executive changes: In November 2024, Chief Sustainability Officer Celine Herweijer resigned, the position was removed from the Group Executive Committee, and climate governance was downgraded from the core decision-making level.

- Strategic shift: Julian Wentzel, the new chief sustainability officer, publicly called for "stopping the punishment of fossil fuel customers", emphasized the role of traditional energy in energy security, and advocated promoting transformation through "increasing low-carbon investment" rather than restricting the carbon economy.

HSBC was once an active promoter of climate finance and released an ambitious net zero transformation plan in January 2024. However, when the political wind changed, the bank's green commitment quickly gave way to commercial reality.

HSBC's strategic shift has triggered a strong reaction in the capital market. In May 2025, at the HSBC shareholders' meeting, a coalition of 30 institutional investors (representing US$1.6 trillion in assets), led by the responsible investment NGO ShareAction, called on HSBC to reaffirm its commitment to net zero emissions, pointing out that its recent actions sent "dangerous signals".

Jeanne Martin, Co-Director of Corporate Engagement at ShareAction said: “We strongly condemn HSBC's decision to leave the NZBA, which is yet another troubling signal around the bank's commitment to addressing the climate crisis. It sends a counterproductive message to governments and companies, despite the multiplying financial risks of global heating and the heatwaves, floods, and extreme weather it will bring. Investors will be watching closely how this backsliding move will translate into its disclosures and policies.”

Jeanne Martin, co-director of corporate engagement at ShareAction, said: "We strongly condemn HSBC's decision to withdraw from NZBA, which is another disturbing signal from the bank on its commitment to addressing the climate crisis. This sends a counterproductive message to governments and companies, even though the financial risks of global warming and the heatwaves, floods and extreme weather it brings have multiplied. Investors will closely watch how this regressive move will translate into its disclosures and policies."

HSBC emphasized in a statement: It remains firmly committed to achieving its 2050 net zero emissions target; and will continue to work with the Glasgow Net Zero Finance Alliance (GFANZ) to support the financing of the net zero emissions transition.

“We continue to support customers in all sectors to make progress towards their individual decarbonisation plans, recognising that the transition to net zero is not linear or uniform across sectors, markets, and regions. Our strategy is to provide our customers with pragmatic financing solutions that facilitate their progress and support long-term emissions reduction while advancing energy security and meeting the economic and industrial needs of today’s economy.”

Author：Qinger