Latest news with #NetZeroBankingAlliance
RNZ News
21-07-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Commerce Commission dismisses Federated Farmers complaint on net-zero banking
ANZ, ASB, BNZ, Westpac, and Rabobank are all signatories to the Net-Zero Banking Alliance. Photo: RNZ The Commerce Commission has dismissed a Federated Farmers complaint that five major local banks acted like a cartel, tying lending to climate targets. ANZ, ASB, BNZ, Westpac, and Rabobank are all signatories to the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, which aligns lending policies to climate change goals. Together, the five banks account for 97 percent of agricultural lending in New Zealand. The Commission's general manager competition Vanessa Horne said no evidence of anti-competitive or cartel-like behaviour had been found. "We thoroughly investigated the complaint and concluded that the banks had made their own, independent decisions. "We found no evidence of unlawful co-ordination between the banks or with the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, either relating to the banks joining or in meeting their obligations under this alliance." Federated Farmers alleged the five banks were co-ordinating their agricultural lending with Net-Zero Banking Alliance strategies which could violate the Commerce Act. It also alleged that this could make it harder for farmers to get loans and increase borrowing costs. Its banking spokesperson Mark Hooper called the Commission's decision disappointing but accepted it. "The reason we made the submission in the first place was that we felt there had been some collusion and there was a sort of collective agreement that would have limited farmers' choice. So in that sense we're disappointed, but we still think it was the right course of action to go down." Hooper said they remained concerned that banks were straying from their "core role of lending money based on real risk considerations and not indulging in the climate change space". The Net-Zero Banking Alliance is a United Nations (UN) initiative that guides banks to lead on climate mitigation in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement. Its website claims 127 banks worldwide have signed up, overseeing $74 trillion in total assets. In background information the Commission said the Alliance did not prescribe targets for signatories, gave a framework for target setting, and tools to assess the emissions within their portfolios and how to speed up lending towards low-carbon activity. Rural concerns about the reduction of lending to rural based petrol stations , prompted New Zealand First MP Andy Foster to pursue a private members' bill to prevent banks from refusing to lend for so-called "woke ideology" reasons. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Yahoo
16-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
How Texas Bullied Big Banks Into Dropping Their Climate Commitments
Speaking to a private gathering of conservative operatives and fossil fuel advocates in January, a top deputy to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton gave 'the inside story' about how his office bullied Wells Fargo, one of America's biggest banks, into dropping out of a global initiative to reduce carbon emissions. The official spoke in January at the exclusive Consumers' Research Summit in Sea Island, Georgia. Rolling Stone has exclusively obtained audio and documents from the event. Brent Webster, the First Assistant Attorney General of Texas, recalled how his office moved to cut off lucrative bond business to Wells Fargo. Webster then shared how he, in a private dinner at the governor's mansion with Gov. Greg Abbott, Paxton, and the bank's execs, told the bank Texas could 'reinstate the bond market' if it left the Net Zero Banking Alliance. When the Wells Fargo team got flustered, Webster said he threatened an antitrust lawsuit against them, telling the bank's executives they were this close 'to being sued right now.' After the Texas attorney general launched an antitrust lawsuit against BlackRock and other large asset management firms, Webster said he called up his contact at Wells Fargo and warned, 'you guys might be next.' It worked: 'They left a week later,' he said. 'They left the Net Zero Banking Alliance, and then all the banks followed.' On the plus side for the banks, once they left the alliance, Paxton allowed them to get municipal bond business again. Paxton's office did not respond to Rolling Stone's request for comment. In a statement, Consumers' Research Executive Director Will Hild, who interviewed Webster at the event, said that the organization is 'appalled at the lengths that Wall Street's financial cartels will go to defend their tyranny over consumers,' adding that 'we are proud of the courageous work that Brent Webster and Attorney General Paxton's office have done fighting for Americans against such antitrust abuse. If big banks and asset managers like BlackRock think that they can intimidate those who oppose their misdeeds into silence … they are mistaken.' Consumers' Research, a one-time watchdog group that now works to limit consumer protections, has led the fight against environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing, with support from Supreme Court puppetmaster and billion-dollar money man Leonard Leo. The organization and Leo have worked in coalition with Republican attorneys general, state financial officers, legislators, and national Republican groups to pressure businesses to drop public commitments to ensuring the future habitability of our planet. Major ESG initiatives undertaken by Wall Street firms like Wells Fargo and BlackRock include membership in global groups like the Net Zero Banking Alliance and Net Zero Asset Managers, which require a commitment to achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. These clean energy alliances became key targets, and ultimately casualties, in conservatives' 'war on woke.' Of course, corporate climate pledges, like the one from the Net Zero Banking Alliance, and ESG were nowhere close to solving the global climate crisis. The banks never stopped funding the fossil fuel industry. That hasn't stopped conservatives — ranging from Donald Trump, Republican state officials, and dark money interests — from waging an all-out war on these concepts regardless, in an effort to ensure that no one with any institutional power at all prioritizes climate action. Webster made clear how easy it is to weaponize the legal apparatus of the state to bring the financial industry to its knees. He urged his allies to do the same: 'Anybody who has power over state enforcers or influence over state subpoena power … states should be ramping up right now.' 'We're Not Recording This, Right?' As part of their anti-ESG fight, conservatives have argued that, by participating in clean energy alliances, financiers have engaged in illegal boycotts and manipulation of the energy markets, and breached their fiduciary duty to shareholders and retirees to prioritize investment returns above all else. They have led an efficient and thorough campaign. Conservative think tanks like the Texas Public Policy Foundation and Heritage Action wrote model bills; state legislators affiliated with the American Legislative Exchange (ALEC) worked to pass those bills; upon passage, state treasurers and investment officials in the State Financial Officers Foundation (SFOF) and Republican attorneys general used these laws to launch enforcement actions; and everyone kept up the drumbeat of attack. Texas, for instance, passed the nation's first law banning banks from the municipal bond business if they are found to be discriminating against the fossil fuel industry. Attorneys general have also weaponized federal antitrust laws to launch 'unsubstantiated' attacks 'against climate initiatives,' as several partners at the law firm Wilson Sonsini put it in an article published earlier this year by Thomson Reuters. 'At bottom, these are nothing more than political attacks, and the courts should quickly end the misuse of the antitrust laws for this political purpose,' they his fireside chat with Hild, from Consumers' Research, Webster gave a basic outline of his role in initiating Texas' antitrust lawsuit against BlackRock for allegedly conspiring with coal companies in its investment portfolio to shut down coal production. Hild wanted more information — the backstory to explain why, after Texas filed suit against BlackRock and asset managers, 'within weeks, what might seem unrelated at first,' big banks like Wells Fargo 'start dropping like flies' from the Net Zero Banking Alliance. It produced a domino effect, with BlackRock leaving Net Zero Asset Managers, which subsequently ceased all replied, 'We're not recording this, right? … Please don't quote me, because I'm telling the inside story on this.' He then described the leverage he had against Wall Street: potential enforcement actions that could end lucrative profit streams for the banks, and the possibility of long, painful lawsuits. 'They're all deathly afraid of being sued,' Webster said, explaining: 'None of them want to be subject to depositions. None of them want to be subject to discovery.' Leo Network Powering the Anti-ESG Coalition Leo's network has long been the top funder of the Republican Attorneys General Association, which works to elect GOP attorneys general.. Marble Freedom Trust is the primary vehicle through which Leo disburses the $1.6 billion bequeathed to him from billionaire industrialist Barre Seid for the purpose of waging the right-wing movement's culture war. Seid secretly gifted his surge protector empire to Leo's dark money trust, before the business sold, creating a historic political advocacy fund for conservatives. According to The Wall Street Journal, Leo's Marble Freedom Trust and his consulting firm CRC Advisors have pumped millions into anti-ESG efforts, with much of it going through Consumers' Research. CRC Advisors played an active role in the Sea Island event. In planning documents from the Sea Island Resort obtained by Rolling Stone, Maria Marshall, a top Leo lieutenant at CRC Advisors, was listed as the point of contact for billing. A key cog in Leo's network, the 85 Fund, was listed as the account holder. While the 85 Fund moved its corporate registration to Texas in 2023, the planning documents still listed its address in Washington, D.C., at the same building where Leo's organizations have long operated. Consumers' Research was originally founded nearly a century ago, in 1929. Just six years after its founding, its workers split to form Consumers Union, which produces the well-regarded Consumer Reports magazine. Meanwhile, Consumers' Research would denounce unions as communist and the group became a shill for the tobacco industry. The group was mostly dormant from 2002 to 2013, when it began advocating for conservative causes in court briefs, based on secret funding from Seid, according to leaked documents. Seid was eventually revealed to be the largest funder of Leo's agenda. Since 2020, Consumers' Research has focused on fighting ESG investing and 'woke capitalism,' with aggressive million-dollar ad campaigns, research reports, and outreach to officials with any leverage over Wall Street. Some of the anti-ESG coalition's biggest partners were in attendance at the Consumers' Research summit, including representatives from ALEC, Heritage Action, and SFOF. These organizations have all received funding from entities tied to Leo. According to an analysis from Democracy Forward, the Leo network was ALEC's largest known donor in 2023. The same year, Hild, Consumers' Research's director, said that Consumers' Research was the largest donor to SFOF. The ESG Fig Leaf For the past several years, as the Biden administration pursued greater action on climate change, Wall Street sought both to hedge its financial risks, and profit from new financial products touting ESG investing and diversity, equity, and inclusion — marketing them to the climate and socially conscious consumer. ESG assesses a company or investment decisions through a sustainability framework, in order to bolster long-term growth and reduce harm. Socially responsible investing has existed in various forms for decades and was implemented by many banks and pension funds through the 2010s, but it really became mainstream during the Biden administration, as climate change took on a renewed urgency. Left-wing critics of ESG say these products are merely a fig leaf helping Wall Street evade regulatory oversight and greenwash their continued investments in the fossil fuel industry, and there is some truth to this. Take for example, a chief target of the Leo coalition — BlackRock, the biggest pension fund manager in the world, with $12.5 trillion in assets under management. BlackRock has been at the forefront of ESG evangelism, while at the same time holding $400 billion in fossil fuel industry investments. Right-wing critics argue that financial performance should be the only factor driving investment consideration. Though conservatives decry ESG as free market malpractice harming the almighty shareholder profit, studies by McKinsey and Bain & Company have found that ESG boosts financial performance. On a broader level, of course, allowing for maximum climate devastation will be both immensely costly for the citizens of Earth, as well as for business interests. At one point at the Consumers' Research summit, Webster spoke about the push to have Republican-led states end any investments with BlackRock, arguing that currently, 'red states are funding the war against us.' Webster acknowledged that some state investment officials managing retirement funds for public employees have been uncomfortable with the idea of ending their arrangements with BlackRock, on the basis that it could hurt their retirement systems' finances. 'The biggest problem we have right now is both of our retirement funds, and I'm sure, I'm glad I'm not being quoted here, but they do not have the courage to stand up to BlackRock,' he said. He argued that's why Republican governors and other officials with control over state retirement systems must appoint people to those systems who view BlackRock as a problem. 'That's the only way we're going to change this system,' he said. 'I'll tell you right now, the pension funds in the red states and the bond market in the red states is larger than anything BlackRock has. You have more power than you have ever realized.' Webster continued, 'All of their security comes from your pensions and your bond markets. That's where the security for their risky investments come from. If you mess with their security, they have to change their entire business model.' More from Rolling Stone Jordan Klepper Charts Trump's Long History With Jeffrey Epstein on 'The Daily Show' Why the Trump Administration Is About to Set Fire to 500 Tons of Emergency Food Speaker Mike Johnson Splits From Trump, Calls for Release of Epstein Files Best of Rolling Stone The Useful Idiots New Guide to the Most Stoned Moments of the 2020 Presidential Campaign Anatomy of a Fake News Scandal The Radical Crusade of Mike Pence Solve the daily Crossword
Bloomberg
11-07-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
HSBC Exits Bankers' Climate Coalition Abandoned by Wall Street
HSBC Holdings Plc has left the world's biggest climate alliance for banks, which was rocked earlier this year by an exodus of the biggest lenders in the US. In a statement announcing its departure from the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, which was posted Friday, HSBC said it remains 'resolute' in its long-term ambition to achieve net zero financed emissions by 2050.
Mint
24-06-2025
- Business
- Mint
Fire hazard: Funding the burning of fossil fuels will eventually leave bank money burnt
If you come home early from vacation and find robbers ransacking your house, you could call the police and try to stop the crime. But the true alpha move would be to help the robbers load your valuables onto their truck and then tell them which of your neighbours are also on holiday in exchange for a cut of their profits. Banks seem to be choosing the alpha option by abetting theft from themselves in backing new projects to extract and burn fossil fuels, thus stoking global warming that stunts economic growth and their own insurance and mortgage businesses. Of course, these financial companies do get a cut of the short-term profits from this environmental sabotage. And by abandoning the pretence of siding with the planet's future, they avoid political blowback from a US government that has declared war on it. But the long-term result will be a global economy trillions of dollars poorer and far less stable, impoverishing just about everyone, including banks. Also Read: ESG gaps: India Inc's approach to the climate crisis needs a hard reset The world's 65 biggest banks delivered $869.4 billion in finance to fossil-fuel companies last year, up $162.5 billion from 2023. Banks have funnelled $7.9 trillion in loans and underwriting to these polluting industries since the Paris climate accord took effect in 2016. This doesn't include any investments by banks' asset-management units, which amount to hundreds of billions of dollars more. Last year's funding surge reversed two years of decline and coincided with a turn of political sentiment against 'woke' environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations in business. Climate action drew some of the harshest attacks, with US President Donald Trump and other conservatives blaming climate activism for high energy prices. Such claims helped Trump win a second term. On his first day in office, he declared that his predecessor's climate concerns had created a 'national energy emergency" that hurt the finances of Americans. His prescription has been to attack any public or private activity meant to slow the burning of fossil fuels. Also Read: Trump's solar panel tariffs deal climate action a severe blow Banks caught the direction in which the wind was blowing and quickly changed tack. The biggest immediately quit the Net Zero Banking Alliance, a group that vows to help eliminate greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050. They still claim to have their own goals for curbing emissions, but they've apparently given up trying to make their actions match their words. To meet the Paris Agreement's rapidly fading stretch-goal of capping global heat at 1.5° Celsius above the pre-industrial average, energy financing should favour green projects over fossil fuels by a 4-to-1 ratio, according to BloombergNEF. In 2023, the latest data available, the ratio was just 0.89-to-1. Boosting fossil-fuel funding last year could not have moved that ratio in the desired direction. Meanwhile, the economic damage caused by a fast-heating planet keeps mounting. Global climate-related costs—including insured and uninsured losses, government relief spending and higher insurance premiums—have topped $18.5 trillion since January 2000, Bloomberg Intelligence (BI) estimated recently. The US alone accounted for $7.7 trillion of the damage, or 36% of its growth in GDP over that stretch. In just the 12 months through April, US climate-related costs totalled nearly $1 trillion, BI said, roughly matching bank financing for fossil fuels during that time. Also Read: David Fickling: How a simple valve can cut fossil fuel emissions but won't You might argue economic activity is economic activity, that building a house is basically the same as rebuilding a house, that government disaster relief is no different from any other flavour of government spending. But simply responding to disasters again and again is no way to grow an economy. Money spent on rebuilding houses, bridges and roads is money not spent on education, better infrastructure or other productivity-boosting measures. It steals growth from the future. A National Bureau of Economic Research paper last fall estimated that a planet hotter by 3° Celsius—its current trajectory—would have a GDP that's smaller by more than a third. A study last week from the University of Maryland's School of Public Policy found that a complete rollback of the Inflation Reduction Act's climate measures, something Trump and congressional Republicans have been working hard to do, would shave $1.1 trillion from US GDP alone over the next decade. It would also kill 22,800 Americans, take $160 billion from American incomes and cause the average home's energy bill to be $206 higher. Talk about an emergency. Given the political reality, it's understandable for US banks to speak softly about protecting the planet and their own future profits. Helping fossil fuels build an even bigger stick with which to beat them makes much less sense. ©Bloomberg The author is a Bloomberg Opinion editor and columnist covering climate change.
Reuters
15-04-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Banks vote to loosen climate coalition membership rules
Summary Back a more flexible temperature target for members Over 80% of members voted; 90% of votes cast in favour Comes as real economy, policy and technology lag on climate ambition LONDON, April 15 (Reuters) - The world's leading bank coalition looking to help tackle climate change has voted to ditch some of its more stringent membership rules to better reflect the slow pace of change in the real economy, its chair told Reuters. The UN-backed Net Zero Banking Alliance has been canvassing members over changes to its rules amid the withdrawal of some of the coalition's biggest banks and as the United States leads calls to abandon climate action in the financial sector. Banks voted to abandon a more stringent target to align all sector financing with 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average by mid-century and replace it with a more flexible ambition to align their businesses with a well-below 2 degrees target, albeit striving for 1.5 degrees. The changes reflect recognition that the real economy is falling short in its transition to be more sustainable while policy making and technology advances have not happened at the rate predicted when banks and asset managers first came together to declare collective action for climate at COP26 in Glasgow. "The knowledge we had in 2021 on what was achievable ... has been very different than where we are today," Shargiil Bashir, Chief Sustainability Officer and Executive Vice President at First Abu Dhabi Bank said. "Some of the industries are not transitioning as we expected four years ago because either the technology is not moving as fast or the policymaking is not moving as fast," he said naming housing and aviation as examples. Over 100 of the groups member banks have already set 1.5 degree aligned sector targets, but the group wants to attract banks in countries which are not aligned to 1.5 degrees to bolster its numbers. The overhaul reflects NZBA's next phase as it moves from primarily a target-setting organisation to one which helps banks implement those changes through webinars, sectoral papers and other capacity-building activities, Bashir said. Options to be discussed include how the financial industry can use different methods of accounting for calculating or reducing planetary warming emissions such as avoided emissions or carbon markets, Bashir said. Over 80% of NZBA members voted while 90% of the votes cast were in favour of the proposals.
