The Net-Zero Banking Alliance ceased operations Friday after losing most of its members, ending a four-year initiative launched in April 2021 that initially gathered 63 financial institutions from 32 countries with about US$40 trillion in assets.
The shutdown follows a cascade of withdrawals: first by the alliance’s largest American banks in late 2024 under intensifying Republican pressure, then by all of Canada’s largest lenders earlier this year.
Founded while Prime Minister Mark Carney served as the UN special envoy on climate action and finance, the NZBA grew quickly after COP26. Vancouver City Savings Credit Union was the initial Canadian member. Afterwards, Royal Bank of Canada, Toronto-Dominion Bank, Bank of Nova Scotia, Bank of Montreal, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, and National Bank of Canada jointly announced plans to join in October 2021.
Over its life, the alliance published more than a dozen reports that it said helped almost 150 banks develop climate strategies and set more than 500 sectoral net-zero targets.
The membership erosion accelerated after the November 2024 US election, when companies broadened an ongoing pullback from climate-aligned industry groups. The largest American banks quit NZBA in late 2024, then the Canada’s Big Six exited in early 2025.
“If our countries have an objective to get to a certain point, we will be part of that, and therefore pulling out of NZBA hypothetically doesn’t lead to non-commitment to net-zero climate change,” RBC CEO Dave McKay said one week before RBC exited. “It just means that mechanism… maybe that is not the right mechanism to do it.”
Earlier in January, the Net-Zero Asset Managers Initiative suspended operations after BlackRock, its largest member, left. The NZAMI is a sister effort for institutional investors with more than 325 members managing a combined US$57.5 trillion.
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