Carney’s net zero group halts activities amid Trump’s backlash

 A leading green banking group founded by Mark Carney has paused all activities amid a growing backlash against environmental capitalism.

The Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) has halted operations following an exodus of the world’s biggest banks in recent months, many of which quit the group after Donald Trump ramped up attacks on sustainable finance.

It announced the pause after outlining plans to hold a vote on whether to overhaul its operations by no longer being a “membership-based alliance”. The results will be announced in September.

The suspension comes after all of the US’s six largest banks – JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup – exited the NZBA ahead of the US president’s inauguration on January.

HSBC and Barclays, which both helped to launch the NZBA in 2021, subsequently quit the green banking alliance this summer amid similar moves from lenders such as UBS. Five of the biggest banks in Canada have also cut ties.

After announcing its exit from the green group in August, Barclays suggested the NZBA was no longer fit for purpose, stating: “The organisation no longer has the membership to support our transition.”

The NZBA itself was first launched at Joe Biden’s virtual climate summit in April 2021, as part of an initiative led and coordinated by Mr Carney in his former position as the UN’s Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance.

The alliance is a subgroup of Mr Carney’s Glasgow Financial Alliance For Net Zero (Gfanz), which the former Bank of England governor launched in 2021 to encourage banks to make clean energy loans and investments.

The launch saw 43 of the world’s largest banks come together to form the NZBA by committing to align their lending investment portfolios with the aims of the Paris Agreement.

Membership of the NZBA subsequently grew on the back of a boom in environmental, social and governance (ESG) investment during Covid.

However, its popularity plummeted after Mr Trump re-entered the White House.

During his election campaign, Mr Trump launched repeated attacks on Mr Biden’s climate policies, including a pledge to end the Democratic president’s “green new scam” and vowing to overturn his subsidies for the renewables industry.

Mr Carney has been approached for a comment.