The road to hell

"Absolutely not, and that would be the road to hell for America." This is what the chief executive of JP Morgan told Rep. Rashida Tlaib in response to her question about whether the bank had devised a policy to divest completely from oil and gas.

The exchange took place during a congressional hearing in front of the House Financial Services Committee. And it took place on the same day that the FT reported that several international banks, including JP Morgan, are considering leaving the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero — a formation led by former Bank of England governor Mark Carney.

According to the report, some GFANZ (Carney should’ve asked the U.S. Congress to name his brain child) signatories were concerned about increasingly stringent net-zero requirements that could see them become the target of lawsuits.

“I am close to taking us out of these global green commitments — I’m not going to allow third parties to create legal liabilities for us and our shareholders. It is immoral and irresponsible,” the FT quoted one unnamed but senior executive at a U.S. bank. “What if we get it wrong, make a mistake or someone lies? Then the bank can be sued, that is an unacceptable risk.”

Hilariously, this report follows another one, from August, when the Race to Zero, the UN campaign for — you guessed it — net zero threatened these same banks that they could get kicked out of the GFANZ if they don’t “meet new criteria on ending coal financing and phasing out fossil fuels from portfolios.”