WWF part of HSBC partnership to combat climate change

London, UK – HSBC, one of the world’s largest banking and financial services organizations, has created a multi-million partnership to respond to the urgent threat of global climate change.

The five-year, US$100 million Climate Partnership, comprised of WWF, The Climate Group, Earthwatch Institute and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, will help protect four of the world's major rivers — the Amazon, Ganges, Thames and Yangtze — from the impacts of climate change, and will make some of the world's major cities — Hong Kong, London, Mumbai, New York and Shanghai — cleaner and greener.

"Climate change, poor management and waste mean that water supplies around the world are more and more stressed," said James Leape, Director General of WWF International.

"The HSBC Climate Partnership will help WWF work towards better management of global water supplies, improve water security for about 450 million people, and reduce the impact of climate change on some of the world's most important rivers."

The HSBC Climate Partnership builds upon Investing in Nature, the group's previous five-year partnership which concluded in 2006. Working with WWF, Conservation International and Earthwatch, the programme helped protect and better manage three of the world's largest rivers for the benefit of some 50 million people, is estimated to have saved more than 12,000 plant species from extinction, and trained 200 scientists.

"The HSBC Climate Partnership will achieve something profoundly important," stressed HSBC Group Chairman Stephen Green.

"By working with four of the world's most respected environmental organizations and creating a 'green taskforce' of thousands of HSBC employees worldwide, we believe we can tackle the causes and impacts of climate change. Over the next five years HSBC will make responding to climate change central to our business operations and at the heart of the way we work with our clients across the world."

For further information:
Alex Hartridge, WWF-UK
Tel: +44 14 8341 2347
E-mail: ahartridge@wwf.org.uk