The Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA), a United Nations-convened group designed to steer the banking industry toward a sustainable future, has been officially shut down. In a sudden announcement, the organization confirmed it would cease operations immediately, marking a significant setback for voluntary climate commitments within the financial sector. The group’s work will now exist only as a set of publicly available guidelines.
The alliance’s unraveling is being directly linked to the shifting political climate, particularly in the United States following the re-election of Donald Trump. His administration’s promise to “drill, baby, drill” and dismantle environmental rules created immense pressure on member banks, which faced accusations of engaging in “woke” capitalism from conservative politicians. This political headwind proved too strong for the voluntary coalition to withstand.
The exodus began with Wall Street’s titans. Six major US banks, including JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, preemptively quit the group before Trump even took office again, a move widely interpreted as an attempt to avoid political retribution. This initial wave of departures created a crisis of confidence that soon spread internationally.
European and Japanese banks began to follow their American counterparts out the door. The trend culminated in high-profile exits from British banks HSBC and Barclays over the summer. For HSBC, the move came after it had already significantly weakened its own internal climate targets, suggesting a broader retreat from ambitious environmental goals.
Climate advocates are now debating the legacy of the NZBA. Some, like ShareAction, view its collapse as a profound disappointment and a lack of corporate leadership. Others, including Reclaim Finance, see it as the predictable failure of a greenwashing initiative. This latter camp argues that the end of the NZBA clarifies the urgent need for government intervention to force the financial sector to divest from fossil fuel expansion.