the times | Friday May 27 2022 39

Business

Climate change is no joke — just

ask poor old Stuart Kirk of HSBC

put their money, not whether you

should go vegan or start cycling. Does

climate change mean that you should

sell shares and put it all into bitcoin?

No. He put up a chart of the S&P 500,

starting in 1930. Steadily, inexorably,

the line goes up. Of course it does,

because for the past century, despite a

few recessions, two world wars and a

pandemic, equities have mostly come

good for investors. Now, there are

many, including Carney, who believe

that unless we take immediate and

urgent action on the climate that

paradigm is over. Capitalism burning

in a furnace of its own making.

But Kirk asked his audience to

imagine if they were back in 1930 and

were trying to assess the risk of

carbon emissions in the next century.

You would have to take into account

huge escalation of manufacturing,

large-scale farming and deforestation,

and the rise of aeroplanes and private

cars. But “we would never have

understood the deindustrialisation”,

Kirk said. “We would never have

understood the rise of the service

economy; we would never have

understood how GDP is getting

lighter; we would never understand

how machinery is getting more

efficient. Likewise, we have no idea

what the next 50, 100 years are going

to bring.”

We don’t. And Kirk was right. The

very fact he lost his job for his 16-

minute speech is proof the groupthink

on climate change, and how to adapt

to it, should be challenged.

Of course, his crime was not just

one of timing. It was also that he tried

to make his audience laugh. Ratner

trotted out his old jokes because the

crowd at the Royal Albert Hall had

just had to sit through a speech by

Norman Lamont, the chancellor, who

could put a bunch of insomniacs on

cocaine to sleep. Kirk, an ex-

journalist, suffered from the terrible

disease of trying to jolly along a

conference audience before the coffee

break with a few contrarian slides and

glib comments about Miami being

under water. And, in this day and age,

trying to make people laugh nearly

always gets you into

trouble. Especially if

you try to joke

about climate

change.

’’

Harry Wallop is a consumer

journalist and broadcaster. Follow

him on Twitter @hwallop

Harry Wallop

cent and 1,000 per cent richer. “You

lop off 5 per cent from that in 2100,

who cares? You will never notice.”

Was his speech often flippant? Yes.

But he was making a very serious

point. Hurricanes and flooding may

well be getting worse, but humans

have always been, and will continue

to be, amazing at adapting.

“California’s fire budget is only 1 per

cent of their state budget; it is 0.1 per

cent of its GDP,” Kirk said. “If

economic growth continues to grow

as it is expected to grow, we can solve

this through adaption.”

Remember that Kirk worked for the

asset management arm of HSBC. His

job was to advise clients on where to

It is now more than

30 years since

Gerald Ratner

famously derided as

“total crap” his own

company’s offering of a £4.95 sherry

decanter and set of six glasses on a

silver-gilt tray. He had made this joke

many times, so too the one about its

earrings being less durable than a

prawn sandwich — in fact the “crap”

quip had even appeared in the pages

of the Financial Times. And there had

never been a murmur of disapproval,

just a ripple of laughter.

So what was his crime, which led to

the near-collapse of Ratners Group

and his own dismissal as chief

executive? Timing. As he stood in

front of the audience at the Institute

of Directors in 1991 he completely

misjudged the public mood, which

was in favour of toppling cocky

Thatcherite entrepreneurs: Asil Nadir,

Gerald Ronson and Ralph Halpern, to

name just a few.

I thought of Ratner this week as I

watched the public shaming of Stuart

Kirk, whose downfall has been just as

dramatic and swift as Ratner’s. The

only difference is that Ratner was

trashing his own company’s good

name, not someone else’s. Kirk has

got HSBC into hot water. Or as one

climate activist said: “This is another

massive smirch on HSBC’s

reputation.”

In case you missed it, Kirk, the now

former global head of responsible

investments at HSBC Asset

Management, made a speech. He’s

now lost his job.

If you read the headlines you may

have thought he advocated solving

climate change by burning Greta

Thunberg atop a massive oil drill in

the Arctic. Or that he thought climate

change was a huge hoax. He didn’t.

In fact, the speech, entitled “Why

investors need not worry about

climate risk”, was excellent. Really. If

anyone bothered to listen to it — it’s

still available on YouTube — you’ll

find Kirk’s only crime (OK, his main

crime) was timing. He dared to

suggest climate change was not the

apocalyptic risk that some claim it is,

and in a godless age this is the closest

thing to heresy there is in 2022.

The vast majority of sensible people

agree that anthropogenic climate

change is real and a serious problem.

As Kirk said: “I don’t doubt the

science.” But that’s not enough. If you

are at the top of any company — be it

a salted nut manufacturer in Wigan

or a global investment bank — you

have to agree with the Archbishop of

Canterbury that climate change is

akin to genocide, or with Mark

Carney’s statement that “climate

change is an existential threat”.

It might be. I don’t know. But Kirk

was suggesting it might not be. He

said that the UN’s Intergovernmental

Panel on Climate Change had

modelled a worst-case scenario

whereby climate change causing

temperatures to rise by 3.6C would

knock 5 per cent off GDP by 2100.

But by the time we get to 2100, thanks

to the marvels of compound growth,

the world will be between 500 per

‘‘

Work from

abroad 120

days a year,

says Zopa

Ben Martin Banking Editor

A British digital bank is to allow its staff

to work for up to 120 days a year over-

seas — the latest sign of the revolution

that is taking place in employment

practices following the pandemic.

Zopa told staff they could work re-

motely abroad for an extended period

without any change to their pay, mak-

ing the online-only bank one of the

UK’s most flexible employers.

The move is an expansion of a policy

Zopa introduced a year ago, when it

said staff could work abroad for as

many as 90 days a year. It has identified

13 countries — including Spain, Greece,

Portugal, Italy, Bermuda and Barbados

— where employees could base them-

selves without facing onerous tax, legal

and right-to-work obstacles. It will also

review other locations on request.

“We recognise the world of work is

changing,” Helen Beurier, Zopa’s chief

people officer, said. “The concept of

work-life balance is no longer relevant.

There isn’t really a difference between

work life and your personal life.”

Zopa was founded in 2005 as a peer-

to-peer lender but has since converted

to become a bank. Almost all its 560

staff are based in London.

Working practices, particularly for

many white-collar jobs, have been

transformed by the coronavirus crisis.

Businesses from law firms and account-

ants to banks were surprised by the

success of the sudden shift to remote

working forced upon them when the

pandemic erupted in 2020 and lock-

downs began to be imposed.

Many now have adopted policies that

allow staff to work at home for at least

part of the week, helping to cut over-

heads by reducing office space and en-

abling employees to avoid commutes

and work around family commitments.

Along with Zopa, other businesses

that have gone further by offering staff

the chance to work remotely overseas

include Revolut, the fintech group,

which allows employees to work for 60

days in a year anywhere in the world,

and Ocado, the online grocer, which

said last year that staff could spend a

month a year wherever they choose.

Beurier said that since Zopa had let

employees work for up to 90 days

abroad, 34 staff had taken up the offer

— and had used the majority of the

benefit available. Some senior staff will

not be able to take up the opportunity,

however. Beurier said it would be “ex-

tremely difficult” for managers deemed

by City regulators to be “material risk-

takers” to go overseas.