As the Trump Agenda Revs Up, Major North American Lenders Scramble for the

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By Alexander Jones, International Banker

On January 7, JPMorgan Chase announced that it would leave the Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA). In so doing, it became one of the latest in a growing line of major lenders—mainly from the United States and Canada—to vacate their positions in the global banking sector’s biggest climate coalition, just as the new US presidential administration has taken office. As such, it delivers a clear signal to the world that North American banking’s collective commitment towards climate action and sustainability will decisively fade during the Trump 2.0 era.

Launched in April 2021 by the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI), the NZBA is a bank-led, UN-convened alliance of leading global banks that are committed to aligning their lending, investment and capital-markets activities with the goal of achieving net-zero greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions by 2050. At present, UNEP FI records 135 banks from 44 countries as members of the NZBA, with a combined $56 trillion of total assets.

“NZBA’s framework, guidance, and learning opportunities support members to design, set, and achieve credible science-based net-zero targets for 2030 or sooner that deliver value for their investors and clients,” according to the UN agency, which has been connecting the UN with financial institutions worldwide to shape the sustainable-finance agenda for more than 30 years. “Members are making important progress. Well over 100 NZBA banks have now set individual and independent science-based sectoral 2030 targets for their financed emissions using 1.5°C scenarios.”

However, with the commencement of Donald Trump’s second presidential term, times are now dramatically changing. Indeed, JPMorgan’s withdrawal from the NZBA comes hot on the heels of the exits of fellow banking giants Citigroup, Bank of America (BofA), Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs—all in the space of less than one month. The six banks collectively account for around $15 trillion in assets—or 62 percent of the US banking industry—underlining the scale of the loss that the NZBA has experienced.

And despite the coalition managing to gather a serious head of steam throughout the previous administration of US President Joe Biden—during which membership numbers ballooned from 43 banks at its founding in April 2021 to more than 140 banks at its peak last year—the changing of the guard in the White House has prompted a major exodus among the US’ biggest banks, a trend reversal that is almost entirely reflective of the Trump Administration’s pro-fossil-fuel, pro-business agenda.

Indeed, Republican politicians have escalated their condemnations of the ESG (environmental, social and governance) movement over recent years, with US banks often on the receiving end. In his first week in office, moreover, Trump signed a flurry of executive orders that could have profoundly adverse consequences for the…