Climate campaigners target HSBC with Shrewsbury billboard
A billboard in Shrewsbury has been taken over by climate campaigners as part of a UK-wide campaign to highlight the environmental damage being funded by HSBC bank.
Activists across the UK have taken over 250 billboards and bus stops in 15 cities, repurposing them with spoof HSBC artworks. They aim to raise awareness about HSBC’s ‘climate colonialism’ as it bankrolls significant human rights abuses through its fossil fuel investments. The bank has invested £67 billion in fossil fuels since the Paris Climate Agreement in 2016, undermining the UK’s efforts to combat the climate emergency.
‘Brandalism’, an anonymous group of ‘subvertisers’, installed the spoof HSBC advert on a prominent billboard in Ditherington heading towards Shrewsbury town centre.
Headquartered in London, HSBC is one of the largest banking and financial services institutions in the world and has been specifically targeted by activists for its damaging investment portfolio. HSBC have been accused of “climate colonialism” because of its destructive investment portfolio ravaging land and indigenous communities, from Mozambique to indigenous territories in North America.
The campaigners accuse HSBC of using advertising to cynically portray itself as an ethical bank. HSBC’s adverts seek to position it as 'the world’s local bank', and its latest “Local Heroes” advertising campaign is in sharp contrast to its investment portfolio.
Tricia Gosling from XR Shrewsbury, who campaign on climate and environmental issues locally, welcomed the action and said:
"Despite all their slick branding and greenwashing, banks like HSBC are part of the problem. They know about the threat posed by the climate crisis but they continue making it worse in order to make bigger profits for themselves. HSBC recently claimed that they were aiming for ‘net zero’ by 2050 yet they are still shovelling cash to the world’s biggest polluters. They need to stop investing in coal, oil and gas projects across the globe and start funding sustainable alternatives instead. These adverts from Brandalism are a wake-up call. They remind people that big polluters like HSBC are deceiving the public with their advertising. They use ads to distract from their harmful and damaging investments. We think it’s criminal that since the Paris Climate Agreement was signed in 2016, HSBC have poured £67 billion into fossil fuels."
More information on the UK-wide campaign can be found by following #FossilBanks.
