‘It’s encouraging to see these alliances unravel, but I wouldn’t call it a victory,’ Utah Treasurer Marlo Oaks said.
A net-zero club for banks is the latest global climate alliance to halt operations after mass departures of its members, but analysts say the departures could be more about avoiding legal action than a fundamental change of heart.
On Aug. 27, having experienced a loss of members—including all six of America’s largest banks—the Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) recommended to the banks that remained that the organization transition from a “membership-based alliance” to a “framework initiative.”
The NZBA said this would entail supporting banks “to remain resilient and accelerate the real economy transition in line with the Paris Agreement.”
The organization polled remaining members for their views and said it would publicize the results at the end of September. Until then, it is putting its operations on hold.
Critics of the NZBA saw this action as a positive step, with caveats.
“It’s encouraging to see these alliances unravel, but I wouldn’t call it a victory,” Utah Treasurer Marlo Oaks, a frequent critic of the net-zero alliances, told The Epoch Times.
“The underlying agenda hasn’t gone away; it’s simply being repackaged.
“Still, this is a clear sign that public scrutiny works and that the pressure campaign against lawful industries cannot withstand legal, political, and market accountability.”
Climate Alliances Span the Financial Industry
The NZBA is part of the U.N. Environmental Program Finance Initiative (UNEPFI), which includes net-zero alliances for insurance companies (the Net Zero Insurance Alliance) and investors (the Net Zero Asset Owners Alliance), coordinated by a Geneva-based secretariat with a mission to “shape the sustainable finance agenda.”
Established in 1992, this network included more than 500 banks and insurers with assets of more than $170 trillion.
An October 2024 statement by UNEPFI reads: “When joining NZBA, banks voluntarily commit to independently setting their first targets for reducing emissions associated with their financing activities in carbon-intensive sectors of the economy.”
Other global climate associations include Climate Action 100+, the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative, the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, and the Network of Central Banks and Supervisors for Greening the Financial System, which the U.S. Federal Reserve joined in 2020.
The financial industry has been essential to the net-zero movement because it has provided powerful leverage over the wider economy. Companies were not only dependent on alliance members for financing and insurance, but these financial giants are also often companies’ largest shareholders.
A 2017 study by Pensions & Investments, an analytics group, found that institutional investors owned about 78 percent of the market value of the Russell 3000 index and 80 percent of the large-cap S&P500 companies.
But, while proponents of the net-zero alliances say that issues related to the climate are so dire that CO2 emissions must be cut by any means necessary, critics say the alliances threaten to drive up energy costs without tangible benefit for the environment.
“Americans want affordable, reliable energy, not elitist policies that raise costs, kill jobs, and weaken national security,” Jason Isaac, CEO of the American Energy Institute, told The Epoch Times.
“Net zero is a foreign-born political agenda being forced on U.S. families by unelected bureaucrats and financial elites, and the public is waking up to it.”
