ASA Ruling on HSBC UK Bank plc

In October 2021, two posters for HSBC bank were seen on bus stops in Bristol and London. The first featured an aerial image of waves crashing on a shore with text that stated "Climate change doesn’t do borders. Neither do rising sea levels. That’s why HSBC is aiming to provide up to $1 trillion in financing and investment globally to help our clients transition to net zero”. The second poster featured an image of tree growth rings with text that stated "Climate changes doesn’t do borders. So in the UK, we’re helping to plant 2 million trees which will lock in 1.25 million tonnes of carbon over their lifetime". The Advertising Standards Authority (“ASA”) received 45 complaints, including from Adfree Cities, who challenged whether the ads were misleading, because they omitted significant information about HSBC’s contribution to carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas emissions. By ruling of October 19, 2022, the ASA upheld the complaints. The CAP Code required that the basis of environmental claims be clear and that unqualified claims could mislead if they omit significant information. The ASA held that consumers would understand the ads to mean that HSBC was making, and intended to make, a positive overall environmental contribution as a company. As part of that contribution, consumers would understand that HSBC was committed to ensuring its business and lending model would help support businesses’ transition to models that supported net zero targets. Additionally, they would understand that HSBC were undertaking an environmentally beneficial activity by planting trees which would make a meaningful contribution towards the sequestration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Whilst the ads appeared in the run up to COP26, that did not mean consumers would understand the intricacies of transitioning to net zero. HSBC’s current financed emissions – emissions related to the customers it financed – stood at the equivalent of around 65.3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year for oil and gas alone. That figure was likely to be much higher once other carbon-intensive industries such as power and utilities, construction, transport, and coal mining had been analysed and included. HSBC also intended to continue funding thermal coal mining and power production – a type of fuel that emitted high levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses – to some degree until 2040 (or 2030 in the OECD). Some level of financing would be required for natural gas and oil production to 2050. However, that meant, despite the initiatives highlighted in the ads, that HSBC was continuing to significantly finance investments in businesses and industries that emitted notable levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses. Consumers would not know that was the case, and it was therefore material information that was likely to affect consumers’ understanding of the ads’ overall message, and so should have been made clear in the ads. The ads omitted this material information and were therefore misleading. The ASA ruled that the ads must not appear again in the form complained of. The ASA told HSBC to ensure that future marketing communications featuring environmental claims were adequately qualified and did not omit material information about its contribution to carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas emissions.