HSBC's Exit From the Net Zero Banking Alliance Shows the Green Blob's Attempt to Become the Green Mob is Over

The shakedown is thwarted, at least for now

Last week, London-based HSBC Bank announced its withdrawal from the Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA). The NZBA is one of a number of 'alliances' of financial institutions formed by the UN under the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) umbrella, launched at COP26, but which is now falling apart, as discussed recently here. HSBC joined the alliance in 2021 as a founder member, making the bank’s exit all the more significant, in addition to the fact of it being London-based and the first UK bank to quit, despite Ed Milband’s intention of making the UK the “sustainable finance capital of the world”. Green finance is not going according to plan.

Green finance initiatives, from ESG to the GFANZ and its subsidiary 'alliances', are attempts to subvert democratic control of policy. In the late 2000s and into the 2010s it became apparent that a global emissions-reduction policy was an ambition too far. National governments could not impose such things on their populations without risking serious political pushback. But the green movement’s financiers had bigger plans. By making obedience to green diktats a condition of financial agreements, which are private, those financiers could make a lot of money and governments could take a back-seat role.