The Net Zero Banking Alliance closes its doors
Trump's turnaround on climate had already prompted US banks to abandon the initiative. Now the decision has been made to put an end to the initiative promoted under the auspices of the UN.
Key points
The Net Zero Banking Alliance closes its doors for good. After suspending operations at the end of August, the outcome of the vote among the participating banks was announced today, and the final decision was to close down operations immediately.
Founded in 2021 with a commitment to bring bank-funded emissions towards Net Zero by 2050, the alliance had experienced rapid growth, growing in three years from 43 founding institutions to over 140 members with total assets of USD 74 trillion. In recent months, however, the coalition has steadily lost weight due to a series of withdrawals by large banking groups, especially North American ones.
Trump effect
.In the United States, the presidential election victory of Donald Trump, an opponent of any policy that takes climate change into account, had led many large US banks to align themselves with the new environment even before Trump took office. Already in December 2024 Goldman Sachs had left NZBA, followed within a few weeks by J.P. Morgan, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and Wells Fargo, as well as the major Canadian institutions.
The defections did not stop: giants such as HSBC, UBS and Barclays joined in 2025.
In an attempt to limit defections from the NZBA, in March 2025 the remaining members of the alliance had removed the obligation to favour limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees (raising it to 2 degrees) and introduced generally looser rules on timing as well. But the softening of the rules was not enough to stop defections from other banks, leading to the final decision to close the alliance.
