Is momentum building or diminishing on bank decarbonisation?

As the Net-Zero Banking Alliance continues to expand, lenders are caught between the urgency of the climate crisis, accusations of greenwashing, and the practical – as well as political – challenges of setting decarbonisation targets.

There are several positives to take away from the Net-Zero Banking Alliance’s progress report, its first since the group was launched in April 2021. For instance, 90 per cent of member banks that were due to submit intermediate 2030 net zero targets by October 21 had done so by the end of that month. The alliance has also expanded from 43 banks to 122, representing $72tn in assets – an estimated 40 per cent of the global industry’s total.