Zoë Knight

Towards Neutral Carbon Emissions: Challenges and Opportunities

Zoë Knight is Group Head of the HSBC Centre of Sustainable Finance and Head of Climate Change MENAT. Zoë joined the Global Research business of HSBC in 2010 to provide institutional investors with climate change analysis and recommendations. Since then she has produced insights on low-carbon opportunities in bond and equity markets, long-term carbon and water risks and managing financial stability in relation to climate change. She has been advising global institutional investors on equity investing and climate change for over 20 years. During her tenure in markets she authored the ‘Keeping it Cool’ Series of briefings on climate policy, economics and investment ideas and achieved a No 1 ranking for Climate Change Research by institutional investors in industry awards from 2014 to 2017. In 2018, Zoë set up the Centre of Sustainable Finance at HSBC to provide climate insight across the group. The Centre provides thought leadership about transforming the real economy and strengthening the financial system response to climate change. Centre achievements include collaborating with 45 academic and industry partners across 15 countries to produce over 150 pieces of work. Prior to HSBC, Zoë worked in both a major European and US investment bank. An economist by academic background, her initial career was focused on providing equity ideas to investors focused on European Small and MidCap markets. Zoë has participated in a variety of advisory boards and councils on climate across the financial services industry, including the UK All Parliamentary Group on Climate Change, UK Finance, the Task Force on Climate Related Financial Disclosures and the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero. In addition, she is a regular contributor to the academic agenda, and is a contributing author to ‘Investment opportunities for a low-carbon world’, 2009. Currently, she is a Commissioner on the Energy Transition Commission, sits on the Advisory Board of the UK Centre for Greening Finance and Investment and the WEF Global Future Council on Net Zero Transition. In 2020, she was recognised as one of 275 Global female energy influencers by the Women’s Energy Council. In 2021 she featured in ‘The Female Lead’, a book of 67 women changing the world today and in 2022 she was included in the Financial News inaugural list of the fifty most influential people in Sustainable Finance.