HSBC Releases 2025 Net Zero Transition Plan with Revised Sector Emissions Targets

HSBC has published its 2025 Net Zero Transition Plan, reinstating interim 2030 financed emissions reduction targets for key carbon-intensive sectors after suspending them earlier in the year, and reaffirming its ambition to achieve net zero across financed emissions, operations and supply chain by 2050. The bank reported $54.1 billion in sustainable finance and investment activity in the first half of 2025, up 19% from the prior year.

HSBC initially set climate goals in 2020 and published its inaugural transition plan in early 2024. In February 2025, the bank placed its interim financed emissions targets under review citing the slower-than-expected pace of the global energy transition, including delays in technology advancement, energy mix diversification and government policy. The new plan reinstates updated 2030 targets as ranges rather than fixed points. The oil and gas sector target has been revised to a 14-30% reduction from a 2019 baseline, compared to a prior goal of a 34% reduction; the thermal coal target of 70% reduction remains unchanged.

HSBC reported that it has already reduced direct Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 76% since 2019, and has cut financed emissions by 30% from its baseline. The bank has reached approximately $448 billion toward its goal of providing or facilitating $750 billion to $1 trillion in sustainable finance by 2030. An internal survey cited in the plan found that 80% of the bank's customers expect their companies to accelerate their climate transition approach in the next three years, while 60% view the transition as a key commercial strategic focus.

The revised target ranges, with their lower bounds aligned to a 1.5°C warming pathway and upper bounds to a 1.7°C pathway, reflect the bank's effort to balance ambition with operational feasibility in an uneven global transition. HSBC's new commercial strategy for corporate and institutional banking clients prioritises sectors with the greatest transition demand and real-economy impact. India is a key emerging market for HSBC, and the bank's support for client transition plans in high-emitting sectors such as power and steel has direct implications for Indian corporate borrowers seeking transition finance.

Key figure — $54.1 billion in sustainable finance and investment in H1 2025, up 19% year-on-year