HSBC, one of the world's largest banking and financial services organization is truly living upto its status as 'the World's local bank'. HSBC alongwith, WWF (World Wildlife Fund) have taken an initiative to play their part in climate change control as a part of their corporate social responsibility. Alongwith HSBC and WWF, other organisations who have joined hands for creating a better future are Earthwatch, the Climate Group and the Smithsonian Tropical research institute. They all have a common aim of reducing the impact of climate change on people, forests, freshwater and cities, and alongwith that promote the adoption of low-carbon policies.
Due to industrialization and progress, carbon dioxide emissions and other greenhouse gases have led to drastic climate change. This may impact developing economies and create global issues like higher sea levels, increased droughts and varying rainfall pattern. Also, billions of people rely on trees for food, medicine, fuel etc and deforestation, degradation is a major threat to all. Thus, as a responsible organization, HSBC and WWF have taken stern steps to ensure they play their part in protecting the environment. Also, the number of urban dwellers has risen from 750 million in 1950 to 3.5 billion today, and is set to rise to around 6 billion by 2050.
The climate partnership has over 1400 climate champions in over 59 countries, 38500 volunteers and over 62000 have learnt about environmental sustainability. As a part of this global initiative, over 2.9 million hectares of forests have been protected, reduction of carbon emission in 12 cities is on and provision of fresh water to about 28 million people is achieved.
The HSBC climate partnership has been involved in scientific research and policy development across 4 continents for betterment of cities, forests and river basins across the globe. With the support of the governments, a few major cities where activities are on full swing are Beijing, Delhi, Hongkong, London, Mumbai, New York, Shanghai, Kolkata, Adelaide and Toronto. Apart from cities, river basins of Amazon, Ganges, Yangtze, Thames and Panama Canal watershed are also under operation for improving water quality, safeguarding habitats and protecting species.
This global initiative focuses on tackling problems of illegal deforestation, use of smart technology & LED products, providing cleaner water to cities, protecting world's freshwater resources, cleaning up Ganges, Yangtze etc, changing consumer behavior and creating awareness about environmental sustainability.
Continuous growth, industrialization is leading to the production of greenhouse gases causing an irreversible damage to the Earth's fragile ecosystem. Human needs and population would also seemingly grow manifold in the coming decades. Thus, an initiative by global organisations like WWF and HSBC are a step in the right direction in protecting the only planet known to have life.
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