HSBC Holdings PLC (LSE:HSBA) executive Stuart Kirk, who was suspended earlier this year for attacking climate activists, has quit his job in protest of what he terms "cancel culture" and "virtue signalling".
After he attacked climate "nut jobs" during a London city event in May and asked, "Who cares if Miami is six metres underwater in 100 years?", the UK's largest bank reportedly put Kirk on paid leave.
In a blog post on LinkedIn, Kirk announced his decision to step down from his post at HSBC Asset Management as global head of responsible investing.
"Ironically given my job title, I have concluded that the bank’s behaviour towards me since my speech has made my position, well, unsustainable," he wrote.
He added "cancel culture destroys wealth and progress" and there is "no place for virtue signalling in finance".
"I will continue to prod with a sharp stick the nonsense, hypocrisy, sloppy logic and group-think inside the mainstream bubble of sustainable finance," he noted, adding "most of what’s out there is bonkers".
As people in the finance sector are increasingly keen to burnish their green credentials, Kirk's initial comments about climate change - in which he also said there was "always some nut job telling me about the end of the world" - surprised many.
During his presentation earlier this year, he reportedly wrote in a slide "unsubstantiated, shrill, partisan, self-serving, apocalyptic warnings are ALWAYS wrong".
In his LinkedIn post, he said he has brought a "crack group of like-minded individuals together to deliver what is arguably the greatest sustainable investment idea ever conceived" and claimed the new project would "underline the central argument in my speech".