The largest U.S. bank has left the industry’s largest climate-financing cohort, as JPMorgan has exited the Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA), leaving the group with a net of zero large U.S. banks among its members.
“JPMorgan Chase & Co. just became the last of Wall Street’s biggest banks to abandon the industry’s largest climate-finance alliance,” BNN Bloomberg reported Tuesday. “The No. 1 US bank by assets said in an email on Tuesday that it will no longer be a member of the Net-Zero Banking Alliance.”
Apparently, JPMorgan now seeks “to enable inclusive” economic growth – instead of discriminating against companies that produce traditional sources of energy in order to coerce net-zero emissions compliance:
“In its climate report, which was put out shortly after the US election, Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon said JPMorgan seeks ‘to enable inclusive, sustainable economic growth because it’s good for business.’”
JPMorgan’s exit marks “the latest in a rapid-fire series of departures from the UN-backed coalition of banks dedicated to advancing global net zero goals through their financing activities,” ESG Today notes:
“The departure makes JPMorgan the last large-scale U.S.-based bank to leave the NZBA, following the exit over the past few weeks of Citi, BofA, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo. Following the departure of JPMorgan, the only remaining U.S. banks listed on the NZBA website are Amalgamated Bank, Areti Bank, and Climate First Bank.”
But, JPMorgan won’t completely abandon its anti-carbon financing strategy, Yahoo! Finance explains:
“The biggest lender in the US said it would ‘continue to work independently to advance the interests of our firm, our shareholders and our clients and remain focused on pragmatic solutions to help further low-carbon technologies while advancing energy security.’”
While many of the departures from NZBA have come since Republican President-Elect Donald Trump won the White House last November, the House Judiciary Committee has already begun scrutinizing potential illegal collusion and anti-competitive behavior by financial institutions engaged in what it deems “climate cartels.”
Last June, the committee released "Climate Control: Exposing the Decarbonization Collusion in Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Investing," which details direct evidence of a "climate cartel" consisting of left-wing activists and major financial institutions that collude to impose radical environmental, social, and governance goals on American companies.
“It’s a cartel. Any one of these companies operating alone with these ESG policies hurtful to consumers would go out of business in a free and open market,” Committee Chairman Rep. Massie (R-KY) wrote in a social media post.
According to Bloomberg research, “banks have collectively stepped up their financing of the fossil-fuel industry since the alliance was formed in 2021.”