Bank holiday

Everyone’s heard the news by now. The six biggest U.S. lenders have quit the Net-Zero Banking Alliance. So have four of the biggest Canadian banks. Reports about the quitters abound, citing a net zero of specific reasons for the moves. What the reports cite are all these banks’ assurances they would remain on the path of the righteous net-zeroist despite their withdrawal from the NZBA.

“We aim to contribute to real-economy decarbonization by providing our clients with the advice and capital required to transform business models and reduce carbon intensity,” Morgan Stanley said.

“We will continue to work with clients on this issue and meet their needs,” Bank of America told Reuters.

“The NZBA was formed at a time when the global industry was scaling up efforts to take action on climate, and served a valuable role in galvanizing these efforts and establishing momentum,” Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce said.

“As this space has evolved and matured, and having made significant progress alongside our clients in these areas, we are now well-positioned to further this work outside of the formal structure of the NZBA,” CIBC neatly concluded.

Essentially, they’re all saying the same thing, namely that they don’t really need any more encouragement because they’re doing so well on net zero already. Meanwhile, the media reporting on their exodus are also saying the same thing which is а different thing from the banks’ thing: it’s all because of Trump and the rise of the right outside the U.S. as well. The banks are facing growing pressure from anti-transition forces, they write, so they’re caving.

That’s a simple explanation but there’s a simpler one. It’s called money.