The climate alarmist agenda is on its heels. JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and Morgan Stanley recently joined the stampede of major financial institutions to back down from their “climate commitments.” According to the Wall Street Journal editorial page:
The climate policy retreat is accelerating as Citigroup, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley this week joined an exodus from the Net-Zero Banking Alliance. Energy reality can bite.
The NZBA alliance is part of the United Nations “Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero” effort to conscript private capital to drive the left’s climate goals. It was spearheaded by former Bank of England Governor Mark Carney in 2021. That was the year of peak climate arm-twisting.
The alliance’s some 140 bank members have committed to align their lending and investment to a goal of zeroing out greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. But the net-zero transition keeps getting set back.
National Legal and Policy Center is not surprised. We argued with filings at the Securities and Exchange Commission against net-zero proposals brought forward by left-wing groups in 2023, and filed climate related proposals of our own in 2024, asking Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and JPMorgan to examine the negative economic and humanitarian effects that its anti-energy lending polices may impose on developing nations. The companies all opposed the proposals.
The tide has shifted, as the major players in the financial industry are rapidly retreating from their climate policies. The WSJ added:
Vanguard in late 2022 pulled out of the Net Zero Asset Managers pledge. JPMorgan Asset Management, BlackRock and State Street Global Advisors last February retreated from a Climate Action 100+ compact. Now the big banks are joining Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo, which quit the alliance last month. Net zero is becoming a much smaller club.
