HSBC Holdings is a multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered in London.
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HSBC's operational emissions have genuinely declined 76% since 2019, but financed emissions — the bank's true environmental footprint — have worsened. Targets were systematically weakened in February 2025: net-zero operations pushed to 2050, oil & gas reduction halved to 14–30%, power utilities switched to intensity metrics. The bank exited SBTi validation and the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, and faces an upheld ASA ruling for greenwashing. Leadership position on climate regulation is actively obstructive.
HSBC Holdings plc scores 32/100 (Below expectations) on SINK's independent climate assessment, scored from public data only. Fees pay for the review, never the result. Last verified October 2026.
That places HSBC Holdings plc joint 557th of 847 companies scored, and joint 34th of 51 in Financial Services / Banking.
Where HSBC Holdings plc sits among financial services / banking peers.
Among the 51 major financial services / banking brands we've scored, HSBC Holdings plc is tied =34th of 51, with 2 others.
Its three lowest-scoring questions, and what the evidence didn't show.
Financed emissions (Scope 3 cat.15) are the dominant supply chain impact but disclosed for only six sectors using PCAF methodology.
2030 net-zero operations target pushed to 2050 (February 2025).
However, Global Witness identifies HSBC as top-three financer of Wilmar, a company linked to deforestation.
A score changes when the evidence does. We use new published evidence at the next rescore. Evidence that isn't public can count through an evidence review.
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Get in touch →Strongest on Carbon Footprint — Operations and Energy Source (7/10, 6/10). Weakest on Carbon Footprint — Supply Chain and Targets & Commitments (2/10, 2/10).
The 3 companies in the sector scoring nearest above HSBC Holdings plc.
SJP's emissions are rising sharply across Scope 3 (up 603% since 2016), its 2025 net zero operations target has failed, and multi-year trajectory data is corrupted by perimeter re-baselining.
See the breakdown →Jupiter's financed emissions rose 48% year-on-year to 26.2 MtCO2e while operational emissions fell marginally.
See the breakdown →Barclays reports comprehensive operational emissions data with 97% Scope 1+2 reductions, yet remains Europe's largest fossil fuel financier at $35.4B in 2024—increasing year-over-year.
See the breakdown →HSBC Holdings plc's score has moved from 35 to 32 across 2 recorded reviews, down 3 points.
Aggregator-citation sweep: broker citations replaced with the primary disclosures they mirror, re-scored through the guarded pipeline under pinned code 9196601.
Initial score at platform launch
The formula and all 10 sources.
Same ten questions for every company. No private weighting.
SINK = (0.3 × Base + 0.7 × Performance) × Scale10 sources used in this assessment. All publicly available. Each row shows which of the ten questions it informed.
“In 2024 we achieved a reduction in absolute operational greenhouse gas emissions (energy and business travel) of 66.1% from our 2019 baseline”
“75.4% of HSBC's Energy consumption in KWh before uplift and scale up [from renewable sources]”
“Total water consumption 1,712 [2025] 1,654 [2024] 1,568 [2023] thousand m³”
“76% reduction in our scope 1 and scope 2 emissions in 2024 from our 2019 baseline”
“Spain's Santander, France's BNP Paribas, Germany's Deutsche Bank, and the UK's HSBC each contributed between $14 and $17.3 billion to the industry in 2024”
“we continue to focus on the reduction and recycling of all waste”
“the ASA found the ads to be misleading as per rules 3.1, 3.3 and 11.1 of the CAP code”
“Barclays and HSBC actively advocated to weaken the UK's climate-related policy ambition”
“HSBC could now finance transactions that were prohibited under the previous version of its policy”
“HSBC, on its website, has not disclosed its trade association memberships since 2020, despite retaining membership to industry associations engaged on climate-related policy”
If you believe a source has been misread or a newer version exists, submit a challenge.
HSBC Holdings is a multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered in London. With 219,697 employees and $62.4bn revenue (FY2024), it operates as a universal bank across retail, commercial, investment banking and wealth management globally. Founded in 1865, it ranks among the world's largest banks by assets.
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