HSBC today published a new ‘No Deforestation, No Peat, No Exploitation’ policy covering its financing of palm oil companies.

The move by HSBC - Europe’s largest bank and a major funder of palm oil companies - follows an investigation by Greenpeace that linked it to companies destroying Indonesia’s rainforests. Hundreds of thousands of people joined the campaign to change the bank’s policies, including 30,000 HSBC customers.

Annisa Rahmawati, forest campaigner for Greenpeace Indonesia, said:

"Our rainforest is being carved up at a frightening rate and high street banks all over the world are funding this destruction. HSBC's commitment to break its ties to destructive palm oil companies is a good first step and Greenpeace will be watching closely to make sure it delivers. This also sends a clear signal that other global banks must follow suit."

In its new policy, HSBC has made stronger commitments to refuse finance for companies that clear forests and peatlands. If adopted across the banking sector, the policy would play a part in ending the role of banks in financing destructive palm oil companies.

The new policy will require HSBC customers to:

Commit to protecting natural forest and peat by 30 June 2017.

Identify and protect forests and peat in new plantations prior to commencing new development.

Provide independent verification of their No Deforestation, No Peat, No Exploitation commitments by 31 December 2018.

A shift towards making palm oil financing more sustainable is long overdue. The rate of deforestation in Indonesia has overtaken Brazil. Last year, orangutans were moved from ‘endangered’ to ‘critically endangered’ on the IUCN’s listings. A recent study estimated that smoke from forest fires, which are fuelled by plantation companies clearing forests and draining peatlands, caused more than 100,000 premature deaths across South East Asia in 2015.

A first critical test for the banking sector will be its response to South Korean conglomerate POSCO Daewoo, which is preparing to clear an area of Papuan rainforest larger than Cambridge. New satellite images of PT Bio Inti Agrindo (a subsidiary of POSCO Daewoo) taken on 13 January 2017 show an estimated 4,000 hectares of rainforest crisscrossed by newly constructed roads, a key indicator of imminent plantation development.

Research by Greenpeace showed that in the past five years, 13 banks - including HSBC, BNP Paribas and Standard Chartered - have been involved in providing POSCO Daewoo and its subsidiaries with loans totalling nearly US$3.6bn and bonds totalling over US$5bn.

"It is clear from these shocking images that HSBC’s client POSCO Daewoo intends to destroy a vast area of rainforest. This is the critical test for HSBC. It cannot in good conscience continue to fund POSCO Daewoo if it continues to carve up Papua’s rainforest." said Annisa.

Greenpeace will today be writing to all of the other banks exposed by the ‘Dirty Bankers’ investigation to ask what action they will be taking, in light of HSBC’s new policy, to ensure they are not funding deforestation.Strong prospects for jobseekers, more jobs in New Zealand than 12 months ago