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HSBC suspends exec who slammed ‘nut job’ climate change risk warnings

By Thomas Barrabi

May 23, 2022 | 2:10pm

British banking giant HSBC has suspended a top executive who argued during a recent public presentation that the financial risks of climate change were overblown and exaggerated by central bank officials and other policymakers.

The suspended employee, Stuart Kirk, is global head of responsible investment at HSBC’s asset management division. He made the remarks during a presentation titled, “Why investors need not worry about climate risk.”

Kirk stated his view that warnings about climate change have “become so hyberbolic that no one really knows how to get anyone’s attention at all.”

“I wouldn’t normally mind that. Twenty-five years in the finance industry, there’s always some nutjob telling me about the end of the world,” Kirk said. “I’ve dealt with gold bugs my entire financial career, the roof’s going to cave down, Y2K. Does anyone remember Y2K, anyone old enough? The lifts didn’t stop.”