Partnering to scale finance for the transition at COP28

Collaboration and partnership to help accelerate finance for the transition to a net zero global economy – this was our focus at the 28th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP28) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Dubai.

We announced our involvement in a number of partnerships that support financing the transition to net zero, including:

1. The International Renewable Energy Agency’s Energy Transition Accelerator Financing Platform (opens in new window) (ETAF).

ETAF brings together organisations from across the public and private sectors to help unlock capital and direct it to renewables projects, primarily in emerging and developing economies.

The potential to reduce emissions in these markets is high, but the investment environment is challenging. HSBC plans to work with ETAF’s existing and new partners, providing technical assistance to help expand its pipeline of investable renewables projects. We have also pledged up to USD200 million in financing for the projects.

2. The newly launched Global Climate Finance Centre (opens in new window) (GCFC).

We became a founding member of this newly launched UAE-based independent think tank and research hub created to connect public and private financial actors so they can collaborate to build an enabling environment for accelerating private finance for the transition, including developing best practice transition finance frameworks and pipelines of bankable projects.

As a COP28 legacy for action and headquartered in Abu Dhabi, the GCFC will serve as an advisory body and capacity building entity to support local and international players in unlocking capital for the transition in the region and wider emerging markets. Alongside HSBC, other global founding members are ADGM, ADQ, BlackRock, CIFF, GFANZ, Masdar, Ninety One, and the World Bank Group.

“For the world to achieve its climate goals, it is absolutely critical that thinking continues to evolve, markets continue to develop and countries continue to collaborate,” said Noel Quinn, Group Chief Executive, HSBC.

3. We have become a founding member of the Capacity-building Alliance of Sustainable Investment (CASI).

CASI is focused on addressing the bottleneck in emerging and developing markets around technical capacity to access private and public capital for the transition. By 2030, CASI aims to have upskilled 100,000 financiers across the world to support the development of the domestic financing ecosystem in emerging markets and improve access to international capital.

In addition to these new partnerships launched at COP28, we announced earlier this year that we’re making available USD1 billion of financing to support early-stage climate tech companies around the world.

As we look to 2024, we are also looking forward to publishing our own Net Zero Transition Plan in the new year. This will set out in one place the steps we are taking to implement our net zero ambition across HSBC, and is the product of significant work and engagement over the last year.

“There is much more to do to unlock the investment needed at the necessary pace,” said Dr Celine Herweijer, Group Chief Sustainability Officer, HSBC. “The net zero investment gap is substantial particularly for the regions and the technologies that need it the most, and new partnerships will be vital.”