Wednesday 6 June 2007

The newly-created HSBC Climate Partnership comprises WWF, The Climate Group, Earthwatch Institute, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) and HSBC itself. It will:

• help protect four of the world's major rivers – the Amazon, Ganges, Thames, and Yangtze – from the impacts of climate change, benefiting the 450 million people who rely on them;
• make some of the world's great cities – Hong Kong, London, Mumbai, New York and Shanghai – cleaner and greener, which the partners will promote as models for the world;
• create 'climate champions' worldwide who will undertake field research and bring back valuable knowledge and experience to their communities; and
• conduct the largest field experiment on the world's forests to measure carbon and the effects of climate change.

Speaking at the London launch of the partnership, Sir David Attenborough, the natural history broadcaster, said, "As we increase the production of greenhouse gases, we face the very real prospect of causing irreversible damage to the Earth's more fragile ecosystems. We are not powerless if we act now, collectively and decisively. We can significantly reduce the causes of climate change and greatly improve the chances of safeguarding for future generations the spectacular diversity of life on Earth."

James Leape, Director General of WWF International added, "Climate change, poor management and waste mean that water supplies around the world are more and more stressed. The HSBC Climate Partnership will help WWF work towards better management of global water supplies, improve water security for about 450 million people, and reduce the impact of climate change on some of the world's most important rivers, including the Amazon, Ganges, Thames and Yangtze."

HSBC Group Chairman Stephen Green said, "The HSBC Climate Partnership will achieve something profoundly important. By working with four of the world's most respected environmental organisations and creating a 'green taskforce' of thousands of HSBC employees worldwide, we believe we can tackle the causes and impacts of climate change. Over the next five years HSBC will make responding to climate change central to our business operations and at the heart of the way we work with our clients across the world."

HSBC's US$100 million partnership – the largest donation to each of these charities and the largest donation yet made by a British company – has significant programme targets and offers transformational support for the environmental charities. The donation will help deliver increased capacity, help the charities to expand across new countries and research sites, and increase their access to more people.

The HSBC Climate Partnership builds upon Investing in Nature, the Group's previous five-year partnership which concluded in 2006. Working with WWF, Botanical Gardens Conservation International and Earthwatch, the programme has helped protect and better manage three of the world's largest rivers for the benefit of some 50 million people, is estimated to have saved more than 12,000 plant species from extinction, and trained 200 scientists.

Find out more about what WWF will be doing.