UN-Backed Net-Zero Banking Alliance Pauses Operations Following High-Profile Departures

British Barclays and HSBC, major Wall Street-quartered firms including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, as well as Canada’s six biggest banks pulled out of the UN-sponsored alliance in recent months.

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The banking industry’s largest net-zero alliance has announced a temporary pause to its activities, following the departure of some of the world’s largest banks from the group.

The Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA), a UN-sponsored initiative, was set up in 2021 by former Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney to encourage financial institutions to limit the environmental footprint of their operations and move toward achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, with members required to set five-year goals for reducing the financed emissions from high-carbon sectors.

In a statement issued last week, the NZBA announced it was pausing its ongoing activities to allow its members to vote on significant restructuring measures.

“Responding to member input, the NZBA Steering Group has, on 27 August 2025, initiated a member vote to decide on a proposed transition from a membership-based alliance to establishing its guidance as a new framework initiative. The outcome of the vote will be shared at the end of September, 2025.”

It added: “The Steering Group believes this is the most appropriate model to continue supporting banks across the globe to remain resilient and accelerate the real economy transition in line with the Paris Agreement, as well as to continue engagement with the global banking industry to develop further guidance and tools needed to support them and their clients.”

The announcement follows a series of high-profile exits from its ranks. British Barclays and HSBC, Swiss UBS, major Wall Street-headquartered firms including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, as well as Canada’s six biggest banks pulled out of the UN-sponsored alliance in recent months.

As per an Earth.Org count, the alliance lost 18 members between October 2024 and last month.

While the banks have sought to reassure their exit would not affect their climate commitments, analysts have warned that the recent exits send a clear signal to the market that climate change has become even less of a priority for financial institutions.

An equivalent investor group, the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative, announced in January that it would review its activities after BlackRock and others announced their departure from the group. 

The alliance was launched in December 2020 to support the asset management industry to commit to a goal of net zero emissions in order to mitigate financial risk and to maximize long-term value of assets. As of January, the group counted over 325 signatories managing more than $57.5 trillion of assets.