This greenwashing is a direct fallout from IAMs in IPCC AR6 WGIII Ch3
: https://bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-10-17/bankers-told-they-can-ignore-binding-fossil-finance-restrictions
"The world’s biggest climate coalition for bankers says it has the right to ignore a proposal that would require members to phase out the financing of fossil fuels."
Bankers Told They Can Ignore Binding Fossil-Finance Restrictions
World's most powerful climate alliance for bankers issues clarification
after some members indicated they were ready to walk out
The world's biggest climate coalition for bankers says it has the right
to ignore a proposal that would require members to phase out the
financing of fossil fuels.
Tracey McDermott, chair of the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, said in a
letter on Monday that the 119-strong group, which counts Deutsche Bank
AG, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and UBS Group AG among signatories, has
"an autonomous governance structure and decision making process" and
any changes to its guidelines "can only take place in accordance with
that governance."
The clarification was issued after the United Nations-backed Race to
Zero campaign, which reviews and accredits net-zero initiatives,
updated its criteria in June to put forward more stringent
decarbonization targets. That move angered a number of Wall Street
firms, with JPMorgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley and Bank of America
Corp. all threatening to walk out over the issue, people familiar with
the matter said last month.
Efforts to reassure bankers that they can continue to finance oil, gas
and even coal come less than a month before the COP27 climate summit in
Egypt. The event looks set to draw far fewer financial chief executives
than attended the COP26 summit in Scotland last year, Bloomberg News
has reported.
Monday's statement drew calls for the broader coalition - the Glasgow
Financial Alliance for Net Zero - to clarify how members can achieve
the net-zero emissions to which they've committed.
"NZBA is saying it is part of GFANZ and that doesn't have anything to
do with Race to Zero. But to be part of GFANZ you need be part of Race
to Zero," said Ben Caldecott, director of the Oxford Sustainable
Finance Group at the University of Oxford Smith School of Enterprise
and the Environment. "Will GFANZ ditch this requirement and if it does,
what are the new criteria to be part of GFANZ? And who marks that
homework?"
Changing the Language
McDermott, who is also group head of conduct, financial crime and
compliance at Standard Chartered Plc, underlined that it "is important
for members to understand that Race to Zero does not have the ability
to impose requirements either on the NZBA as a whole or on individual
members," according to Monday's statement.
Race to Zero had put forward an explicit requirement to phase down and
out unabated fossil fuels, including coal. The group has since revised
its language and emphasized that members must "independently find their
own route" to the 1.5C-aligned climate goal and do so by following the
"most appropriate" science-based pathway. The new guidelines are due to
come into effect from June 2023.
"The NZBA will independently consider RtZ's updated criteria, together
with any other relevant changes in the external environment and any
lessons we have learned over the first years of implementing net zero
commitments, and decide, through established NZBA governance, whether
any changes should be made to our Guidelines to reflect these," said
McDermott.
"The work we have ahead of us is challenging but more necessary than
ever," she said. "We remain firmly committed to the banking sector
playing its part to achieve the 1.5C pathway." McDermott said the NZBA
guidelines will be reviewed by 2024 at the latest.
The bankers' alliance is a sub-group of the Glasgow Financial Alliance
for Net Zero. GFANZ is co-chaired by former Bank of England governor
Mark Carney and Michael R. Bloomberg, the founder of Bloomberg News
parent Bloomberg LP.