Big banks flee climate coalition formed to reduce carbon emissions

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Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and Bank of America this week withdrew from an ambitious pandemic-era climate coalition designed to help drive a shift to reduce carbon emissions by businesses. That followed withdrawals over the past month by Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs from the United Nations-backed coalition, known as the Net-Zero Banking Alliance. JPMorgan Chase, the largest bank in the nation by assets and the only major U.S.

bank left in the coalition, is also considering withdrawing from it, a person familiar with the matter said. A JPMorgan spokeswoman said “the bank regularly evaluates memberships" to ensure they further its “client and business interests." Members of the coalition, launched in 2021, vowed to align “lending, investment and capital markets activities with net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050." The recent exodus from the coalition reflects a broad pullback by companies ahead of the second Trump administration from environmental, social and corporate-governance initiatives. They became a craze on Wall Street years ago but have since been maligned by conservative groups.

President-elect Donald Trump has called climate change a “hoax" and is expected to roll back related regulations. Right-leaning advocacy groups and activists like Robby Starbuck have been pressuring companies to abandon so-called ESG efforts. The lobbying campaigns and legal challenges are only expected to pick up with the incoming administration cheering on the efforts.