Last week, as NRDC was launching a landmark report that quantifies the
astronomical economic and health costs of climate
change
in the US, HSBC, World Resources Institute (WRI) and WWF
unveiled their Climate Solutions
Partnership
(CSP) — which aims to unlock barriers to finance for innovators developing
climate solutions. The partnership’s three workstreams focus on startups
developing carbon-cutting technologies, projects that protect and restore
biodiversity,
and initiatives to help the transition to renewable energy in Asia.
The CSP aims to bring emerging climate solutions to commercial viability and
scale by supporting sustainable projects that would otherwise face barriers to
finance due to insufficient policy and regulatory frameworks, gaps between
demand and supply, or a lack of mature measurement tools and business cases. By
focusing on on-the-ground projects, the partnership’s goal is to catalyze
systemic solutions to address climate change, while also delivering for people
and nature in key markets.
“The transition to net zero must be driven by cutting-edge science and
innovation — and also collaboration. Finding the best solutions for clean
energy, clean transport and environmental protection is vital, as is making them
commercially viable,” says HSBC Group Chief Executive Noel Quinn. “Our
Climate Solutions Partnership will make a tangible contribution towards those
goals, combining our knowledge and resources to accelerate the pace of change
towards a more sustainable future.”
The global initiative is backed by US$100 million of philanthropic funding over
five years from HSBC. It forms part of HSBC’s climate
strategy,
first announced in October 2020 — the banking giant aims to align its provision
of finance to net zero by 2050 or sooner, in line with the Paris Agreement
goals; and to provide US$750 billion-$1 trillion of finance and investment by
2030 to support its customers in the net-zero
transition.
The bank has also pledged to work across the financial sector and beyond to
accelerate solutions that will help avoid catastrophic climate change.
The CSP will combine HSBC's financial expertise with the knowledge and
experience of WRI, WWF and a network of local partners in scaling climate
solutions. Together, the partners will collaborate to identify future business
opportunities for sustainable innovations, and mobilize finance and harness
supply-and-demand forces in commercial markets to scale net-zero solutions.
The Climate Solutions Partnership will work to remove barriers and create
incentives in three focus areas:
-
Energy transition: The partnership includes renewables and/or
energy-efficiency programs in Bangladesh, China, India,
Indonesia and Vietnam — which combined account for more than 35% of
the world’s power
consumption.
The goal is to support Asia’s energy sector’s shift towards
renewables,
and scale efficiency initiatives in key sectors such as healthcare, textiles
and apparel.
-
Nature-based solutions (NBS) and NBS Accelerator: Supporting more than
20 projects globally to protect and revitalize wetlands, mangroves and
forests, and to promote sustainable agriculture. Working with a network of
local partners, these projects will contribute to net-zero goals by better
enabling natural CO~2~
capture,
while increasing social and environmental resilience in markets most at risk
from climate change. The NBS Accelerator is a joint initiative by the CSP
that provides technical and financial expertise to a global network of
organizations to help scale nature-based solutions.
-
Business innovation: Startups and next-generation
technologies
offer the potential to develop new approaches to cutting carbon emissions,
but often face challenges to access the finance and business mentoring
needed to scale. Through WWF’s Impactio
collaboration platform, the partnership will help support business
innovations to scale in collaboration with leading universities, research
institutes, incubators and accelerators. The first pilot challenge,
involving 18 startups from five markets, has just been completed; and the
first live challenge commences later this year.
Manish Bapna, Interim President and CEO at WRI, said:
“Financial institutions have the reach and resources to advance climate
solutions and policies to put the world on a more inclusive and sustainable trajectory. HSBC, with its high profile and global presence, can set an example by shifting its portfolio toward net zero and nature-positive investments. We
are deeply pleased to be joining HSBC and WWF in this dynamic new partnership
that will leverage each organization’s unique attributes. We can go further
together than we can alone.”
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Sustainable Brands Staff
Published May 25, 2021 8am EDT / 5am PDT / 1pm BST / 2pm CEST