Climate Solutions Partnership

We’ve joined up with World Resources Institute (WRI) and WWF to form a five-year philanthropic partnership to help climate solutions become commercial reality and have real-world impact.

The Climate Solutions Partnership is powered by USD100 million of philanthropic funding from HSBC and, with a network of local partners, aims to scale up climate innovation ventures, nature-based solutions and help to transition the energy sector towards renewables in Asia, by combining our resources, knowledge and insight.

Three workstreams

The Partnership is focusing its collective efforts on three global themes: climate-related innovation, nature-based solutions and energy efficiency initiatives in Asia. We see these as having the potential to make a significant impact in the mission to achieve a net zero, resilient and sustainable future.

Climate innovation

Entrepreneurs and start-ups developing cleaner technology often struggle to access the networks, financial backing and business-to-business support required for success. We will support their efforts through mentorship and connect them with organisations interested in supporting their growth.

Nature-based solutions

The actions taken toward restoring and protecting our planet’s ecosystems are crucial to reducing carbon emissions. So we are backing projects that help protect and restore biodiversity as well as enhancing human wellbeing, demonstrating how nature-based solutions can be deployed at scale.

Renewables in Asia

Projects in Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia and Vietnam will help to shift their energy sectors towards renewables, and scale energy-efficiency initiatives in key sectors such as healthcare, textiles and apparel. As Asia accounts for almost half of global energy demand, a successful energy transition from fossil fuels to renewables in this region will have a significant impact in tackling climate change.

The Partnership in action

A nature-based solution: creating carbon sinks by planting more than 2 million trees in the UK

The National Trust, a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation, is committed to reforesting five sites across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The aim is to plant more than 2 million trees and create roughly 2,000 hectares of new woodland habitats, locking in 1.25m tonnes of carbon, over the next four years.

Climate innovation: helping clean-technology entrepreneurs chase down GHGs

Innovation hub MaRS is challenging entrepreneurs to reduce the most amount of greenhouse gases in the shortest period of time through their Mission from MaRS Climate Impact Challenge (opens in new window). Ten of the most promising cleantech ventures in Canada are paired with a team of investors, regulators, potential customers and corporate partners to address barriers to success and identify adoption opportunities.

A nature-based solution: improving soil health for a more resilient US food system

The Midwest Row Crop Collaborative project is supporting farmers to drive positive environment outcomes in the Upper Mississippi River Basin through the adoption of regenerative agriculture practices to improve soil health and increase resilience in the US food system.