UK authority bans HSBC’s climate change advertisements

By: Andreea Dibo, Health & Environment, The Pawprint

Due to two HSBC adverts being “misleading” regarding the company’s efforts to combat climate change, the UK’s advertising regulator has banned them.

In the months leading up to the eagerly anticipated United Nations COP26 climate change summit, the advertisements were visible at bus stations in London and Bristol.

The bank is no longer permitted to air the advertisements that advertised its initiatives to cut hazardous emissions, according to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).

The advertisements described HSBC’s initiatives to plant trees and assist its clients in achieving “net zero” emissions. By reducing emissions and attempting to balance them out, net zero refers to not adding to the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases.
The advertisement included tree growth rings with the words “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 ads “omitted crucial information about HSBC’s contribution to carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas emissions,” according to complaints upheld by the ASA.