HSBC executive Stuart Kirk gave a presentation at an investor conference last week, taking banking regulators to task for overbaking the financial risk of climate change. What was he thinking? As punishment for his heresy, the British bank has sent him to re-education camp.
Mr. Kirk is, or at least was, the bank’s global head of responsible investing, so his candid presentation titled “Why investors need not worry about climate risk” naturally attracted attention. We understand why banking regulators and businesses that hope to make money off the coming tidal wave of climate regulation might be offended by his truth-telling.
But he merely said what many in his industry believe but are too timid to say: Climate change poses a negligible risk to the global economy and bank balance sheets. Oh, and central bankers are partly to blame for the current economic turmoil because they’ve focused too much on climate change while ignoring far greater, more immediate risks such as inflation.
“Unsubstantiated, shrill, partisan, self-serving, apocalyptic warnings are ALWAYS wrong,” one of his slides noted. He highlighted sky-is-falling quotes from banking potentates such as Mark Carney, the former Bank of England Governor, who recently said the damage from climate change will dwarf the current pain from rising prices. Tell that to the working folks dealing with 8% inflation.
If climate change poses such an enormous economic threat, Mr. Kirk asked, why did asset prices surge as doomsday warnings increased? Either climate risk is negligible, climate risk is already in the prices, or all investors are wrong, he said. If you believe the latter, then you don’t believe in markets and shouldn’t be regulating them.
He also pointed out that global GDP growth over this century will by far eclipse the impact of climate change, and humanity will find ways to adapt. Yet he said banks are focusing too much on mitigating climate change—i.e., force-feeding a transition to green energy — rather than financing adaptation.
Mr. Kirk warned that climate regulation has diverted bank resources from lending. The Bank of England’s climate stress tests (whose results are expected to be released Tuesday) are rigged to make bank balance sheets look less resilient to climate policy changes. This allows regulators to justify more aggressive financial regulation to punish fossil-fuel investment.
The Financial Times reported Monday that the content of Mr. Kirk’s presentation had been approved internally at the bank. But after a political uproar, HSBC suspended Mr. Kirk pending an investigation. CEO Noel Quinn denounced Mr. Kirk’s remarks as “inconsistent with HSBC’s strategy.” What a profile in pusillanimity.
Credit to Mr. Kirk for exposing the hubris of the regulatory climate emperors even as his superiors shrink in fear.
Every Reich needs a Jewish problem..
John
The Banks are all on side,for selling indulgences is a most profitable business.
IMHO. Capitalism will eventually destroy their banking business if they continue. Other companies will go to those Banks that will loan the money to do the business that needs to be done, Woke banks will eventually be found out because of their whiteness, wokeness, They will lose Billions and they will lose investors, and when you lose investors, you will lose your Ass.
The flaw with that thinking is that they only get destroyed if they don’t have the support of ruling party, and right now the party wants DIE
Agree.Except only places like India and perhaps Saudi Arabia have banks without agenda.
Switzerland has shown them all the way.
Go woke and betray your clients..Them days of private banking information are all over.
A fine piece of heresy.
He will burn at the stake,for daring to impose common sense onto the biggest scam in history.
The theologians of Government Gospel,that being The Cult of Calamitous Climate,will leave no slander unused,until he recants.
The Banks are all on side,for selling indulgences is a most profitable business,much less risky than junk bonds and naked fraud.
Who would have ever thought that the world would be subjected to the “ Hitler Youth Movement “ . Where this ends is anybody’s guess .
It rained here today – try telling me global warming isn’t real!
The global warmers want to reduce the planet’s temperature. Do you want to live in a colder Canada?
I just need some type of crowd funding deal to get my Canadian Arctic Gulag of Ellesmere (CAGE) up and running.
Buddy
You seem to be imagining some sort of support system..forget that,we will deposit them via cannon,giving real meaning to them being “Fired”.
Only funds I want to spend on “Heaven in the Arctic” is on the drones filming their misery.
Living the dream..A “carbon free” lifestyle,showing us all the way..to become “one with nature” via a fat and ‘friendly’ polar bear.
Kirk’s presentation is the most rational, reasonable thing you will ever see on the likely impact of climate change.
Weimar 2.0 and we already have a start on the brownshirts!
Stuart Kirk sounds perfect for the role of CEO at Galt’s Gulch Bank.