{"id":1549638,"date":"2022-07-12T06:00:14","date_gmt":"2022-07-12T10:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1549638"},"modified":"2022-07-12T06:19:24","modified_gmt":"2022-07-12T10:19:24","slug":"hsbc-banker-quits-over-nut-job-climate-panic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/hsbc-banker-quits-over-nut-job-climate-panic\/","title":{"rendered":"HSBC Banker Quits Over &#8220;Nut Job&#8221; Climate Panic"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fhsbc-banker-quits-over-nut-job-climate-panic%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1549638&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>A high-ranking HSBC executive has resigned, claiming that his position had become \u201cunsustainable\u201d as a result of backlash from a speech he gave last spring downplaying the financial risks of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-climate-change\">climate change<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Stuart Kirk, who was serving as HSBC Asset Management Global Head of Responsible Investment, announced his resignation in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/feed\/update\/urn:li:activity:6950772878405459968\/\">LinkedIn post<\/a> on July 7. In the post, Kirk criticized \u201cthe nonsense, hypocrisy, sloppy logic, and group-think inside the mainstream bubble of sustainable finance,\u201d claiming the company stifled viewpoint diversity and stuck to \u201cbonkers\u201d ideas about sustainable investment.<\/p>\n<p>Kirk went on leave from HSBC in May following an address to the\u00a0FT Moral Money Summit Europe in London. In his speech, the HSBC executive downplayed the risks of climate change for investors, stating that the impacts of manmade climate change were greatly exaggerated and decades from fruition.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s always some nut job telling me about the end of the world,\u201d Kirk said in his controversial address, in which he compared climate alarmists to gold bugs and proponents of Y2K panic.<\/p>\n<p>After several months on leave, and following a lengthy backlash to his remarks, Kirk evidently concluded that his position at the company was \u201cunsustainable.\u201d The embattled banker announced his resignation in the aforementioned LinkedIn post, in which he criticizes the dominant orthodoxy on Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG)\u2014an approach to investing which considers social responsibilities.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cInvesting is hard. So is saving our planet. Opinions on both differ,\u201d said Kirk in his post. \u201cBut humanity\u2019s best chance of success is open and honest debate. If companies believe in diversity and speaking up, they need to walk the talk. A cancel culture destroys wealth and progress.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is no place for virtue signaling in finance. Likewise as a writer, researcher, and investor, I know that words or trading shares can only achieve so much. True impact comes from the combination of real-world action and innovative solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kirk\u2019s post drew a multitude of contentious responses from numerous executives, CEOs, and other financial professionals, who argued in the comments section about the merits of Kirk\u2019s criticisms and ESG.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA lot of shouting on here about what ESG actually is. (It\u2019s not virtue signaling.)\u00a0EGG [sic] is a movement to place the responsibility for cost externalities back where they belong, on the shoulders of the parties that are creating the cost and profiting on the backs of those that bear the cost,\u201d said Gordon Achterman, a\u00a0Fiduciary Financial Adviser for Your Best Path, replying to Kirk\u2019s post.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThose who oppose ESG simply want to be allowed to do their damage in secret, and that is cronyism not capitalism.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Despite protestations from his critics, Kirk announced that he would be working on an ambitious new project. He did not specify the details of his upcoming venture, which he calls \u201cthe greatest sustainable investment idea ever conceived,\u201d involving the creation of \u201ca whole new asset class.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kirk promised to announce the details of the mysterious project later this year.<\/p>\n<div class=\"author_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"one_author_block round\">\n<div class=\"top_row\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/author-nicholas-dolinger\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Follow<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Nicholas Dolinger is a business reporter for The Epoch Times.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A high-ranking HSBC executive has resigned, claiming that his position had become \u201cunsustainable\u201d as a result of backlash from a speech he gave last spring downplaying the financial risks of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1547257,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1549638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1549638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1549638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1549638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1547257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1549638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1549638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1549638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}