The Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA), once championed as a leader in the financial world’s fight against climate change, has written its final chapter. The global coalition has ceased operations, transforming from a symbol of corporate ambition into a cautionary tale about the vulnerability of voluntary climate pledges.
The plot took a dramatic turn with the re-election of Donald Trump. His administration’s aggressive pro-fossil fuel stance and the rise of an “anti-woke” political culture created a new, hostile setting for the NZBA. The story shifted from one of collaborative progress to one of political survival.
The climax of this story was the mass exodus of the alliance’s main characters. Six of Wall Street’s biggest names, from Goldman Sachs to Citigroup, made a swift exit to avoid becoming villains in a political drama. Their departure triggered the story’s inevitable tragic conclusion, with other international banks like HSBC and Barclays following them out the door.
The epilogue is being written by observers, who offer sharply different reviews. Groups like ShareAction see it as a “bitterly disappointing” ending, a failure of the protagonists to show courage. Others, like Reclaim Finance, view it as the predictable end to a story they always felt was a work of fiction, an “illusion” of progress.
The moral of this cautionary tale is now clear to many: voluntary commitments, no matter how grand, can be easily erased by political pressure. For a story with a better ending for the climate, they argue, the plot must be driven by the unyielding force of government regulation, not the fickle will of corporations.