Net Zero Banking Alliance exodus reaches Australia

Most North American leading banks have now left the UN-convened Net Zero Banking Alliance, and the movement has now reached Australia, with Macquarie announcing its decision to leave today.

Trump’s anti-ESG rhetoric is having consequences on the financial sector far beyond the borders of the United States. Australia’s Macquarie Group published a statement on February 11 announcing that “like many peers”, it would no longer be a member of the Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA).

The bank noted that the NZBA helped develop global frameworks and assisted member banks in establishing their initial decarbonisation plans, but that membership was no longer necessary “with those building blocks now in place”.

NZBA exodus: a timeline

Since December 2024, at least 10 other major banks have left the initiative – which requires its members to align with a net zero pathway, set emissions reduction targets every five years from 2030 as well as sector-specific targets, report annually on their progress and adopt a transparent approach to carbon offsets.

The movement started in the US with Goldman Sachs on December 6 – one month after Donald Trump was reelected as President – followed by Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, and finally JP Morgan on January 7.

Later in January, top Canadian banks BMO, National Bank, TD Bank Group and CIBC joined their US counterparts in withdrawing from the alliance.

A few weeks later, Macquarie is the first Australian bank to make the same announcement.

What future for Net Zero Banking Alliance?

In May 2024, the Net Zero Banking Alliance concluded the first review of its guidelines, and introduced a new requirement to include emissions resulting from banks’ capital market activities into their next round of climate targets (by November 2025).

The new guidelines were welcomed by sustainability professionals across sectors, who saw them as a significant step forward in starting to tackle capital market emissions. But it’s unclear how NZBA will evolve as a result of losing so many high-profile members.

Its umbrella organisation, the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ), announced in early January that it would transition to a CEO-led group for all financial institutions working to mobilise capital for the global energy transition – effectively removing the strict joining criteria that pushed members to commit to science-based, Paris-aligned climate targets.