HSBC Donates Funds For Climate Research

HSBC announced yesterday that it was creating a five-year, $100 million partnership with four environmental groups to conduct global warming research.

The project, which is the largest-ever donation by a British firm, according to the banking company, would promote research in several areas, including the challenges cities and forests face.

The research is to be led by the Climate Group, Earthwatch Institute, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and the World Wildlife Fund.

Paul Lawrence, president and chief executive of HSBC Bank USA, said the company was sensitive to issues of global warming because it has operations in 82 countries and 100 million clients.

"We're uniquely poised to see across a number of economies how climate change is affecting a number of countries," Lawrence said. He said the bank would no longer finance deals that have a negative impact on the environment.

The initiative includes the largest-ever field experiment on forests to assess the effects of global warming. The partnership is to focus on New York, Hong Kong, London, Mumbai and Shanghai. At least four major rivers, the Amazon, Ganges, Thames and Yangtze, are to be included in the research project.

Christopher Walker, U.S. director of the Climate Group, said it made sense to focus climate change efforts on some of the cities where his group operates.

"Many of the solutions lie in cities -- concentrations of capital, decision makers, opinion formers and population," Walker said in a statement.