HSBC’s chief sustainability officer has quit the bank after her role was sidelined in a management overhaul amid a broader backlash against green finance.
Celine Herweijer, who has served as chief sustainability officer since July 2021, will leave the company at the end of the year to “pursue new opportunities,” HSBC said on Monday.
The former PwC executive will be replaced on an interim basis by Julian Wentzel, current head of global banking in the Middle East.
Herweijer’s departure coincides with a cost-cutting drive by Georges Elhedery, HSBC’s new chief executive, and a move to remove the sustainability role from the bank’s executive committee.
Elhedery has reduced the committee from 18 to 12 executives, and the head of sustainability no longer reports directly to him. This has raised questions about whether the bank is relegating green issues in its strategy.
The move comes amid a broader backlash against green investment, with accusations that the push to net zero is unrealistic and pursued at the expense of profits.
Larry Fink, the head of BlackRock, has recently banned the use of the term environment, social and governance (ESG) due to its political connotations, while several investors, including JP Morgan, Pimco and State Street, have abandoned environmental coalitions that put pressure on companies. about climate change.
Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JP Morgan, also called the move to exit oil and gas “hugely naïve” given the decades the transition to clean energy could take.
Elhedery has previously rejected suggestions that HSBC had relegated climate change as a priority, saying the bank was “committed to supporting the transition to net zero emissions”.
“It remains a priority for HSBC and one of the four pillars of our strategy,” he said last month. “We are also committed to helping our clients transition and are committed to funding our clients’ transition.
“We remain committed to becoming a net zero bank by 2050, so that does not change with respect to our sustainability commitments.”
HSBC has a difficult history with so-called ethical investing, after a senior banker was suspended in 2022 for comments made during a city event in which he lashed out at climate “crazies”. Stuart Kirk, HSBC’s former head of responsible investing, resigned from the role shortly afterwards.
Elhedery thanked Ms Herweijer for her “significant contributions” to the bank’s net zero ambitions.
Ms Herweijer said: “I believe HSBC, as one of the world’s largest banks, has a key role to play in financing the transition in the global economy and supporting our customers.