HSBC has partnered with Google Cloud to accelerate climate mitigation and resilience by providing financing and support to companies in the Google Cloud Ready – Sustainability (GCR-Sustainability) program.
GCR-Sustainability is a verification program for companies that provide solutions on Google Cloud to help customers achieve goals including reducing carbon emissions, improving value chain sustainability, and processing ESG data to help identify climate risks.
Under the new partnership, Google Cloud will introduce GCR-Sustainability to HSBC’s dedicated climate technology financing team to explore venture debt financing options.
Key goals of the partnership include:
- Google Cloud will continue to increase the number of GCR – Sustainability Program partners over the next two years.
- HSBC will pursue funding opportunities for companies within the GCR sustainability ecosystem as part of its ambition to deploy $1 billion in climate technology finance and facilitate connections with HSBC’s client base.
Natalie Blyth, global head of sustainability for commercial banking at HSBC, said: “Significant changes are needed to scale new technologies that will play a key role in supporting global decarbonisation.
“Partnerships and innovative financing solutions are key, especially at a time when investment in climate technology startups is down. By combining financing support, cloud technology and connections with partners, we will help climate technology suppliers Accelerate development and develop the solutions we desperately need at scale.”
Justin Keeble, Managing Director of Global Sustainability at Google Cloud, said: “The scale of the climate challenge requires a global ecosystem of technology vendors delivering solutions that make an impact. That’s why we launched Google Cloud Ready – Sustainability We continue to grow the ecosystem, which, a year later, includes leading climate technology companies. Many of these partners need access to finance and we are delighted to be working with HSBC to support businesses that are critical to climate action.”
The partnership was launched with HSBC providing a venture debt financing package to LevelTen Energy, a GCR sustainability-certified company. LevelTen Energy provides renewable energy trading infrastructure to buyers, sellers, advisors and financiers in the clean energy economy. To date, the company has facilitated more than $5 billion in clean energy transactions.
Ross Trenary, LevelTen Chief Financial Officer, said: “We are proud to be a GCR Sustainability Certified company and look forward to working closely with the team at HSBC.
“This venture debt program will enable us to expand our platform to provide trading infrastructure for carbon-free energy buyers, sellers and financiers. HSBC’s global reach is consistent with our international reach, while providing us with Provides opportunities to connect with HSBC customers seeking to achieve their sustainability goals.”
The partnership builds on HSBC’s launch of a credit risk advisory tool on Google Cloud. Previously, HSBC also announced its ambition to provide $1 billion in financing to early-stage climate technology companies and launched HSBC Innovation Banking, a banking business dedicated to supporting a wide range of innovative businesses and their investors.
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