Goldman Sachs Group Inc is walking away from the world’s biggest climate alliance for banks, in the latest sign that Wall Street is recalibrating its affiliation with such groups.
Goldman has decided to no longer be a member of the Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA), the company said in a statement on Friday.
Firms are struggling to adapt to a deluge of increasingly fragmented environmental, social and governance (ESG) requirements from various standard-setters and jurisdictions. Goldman’s decision to leave NZBA was largely motivated by a need to comply with mandatory reporting guidelines, a person familiar with the matter said, adding that it would be helped by the rollout of the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, the person said.
Photo: Getty Images via AFP
“We have the capabilities to achieve our goals and to support the sustainability objectives of our clients,” the bank said in a statement. “Goldman Sachs is also very focused on the increasingly elevated sustainability standards and reporting requirements imposed by regulators around the world.”
A spokesperson for NZBA declined to comment. Members of the group commit to achieving net zero financed emissions by 2050 at the latest and to set interim five-year decarbonization targets.
The move comes amid intense and growing pressure from the US Republican Party on such coalitions, as part of a wider attack by the party on what it has characterized as “woke” capitalism. Last week, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton led a move to sue BlackRock Inc, Vanguard Group Inc and State Street Corp for allegedly breaching antitrust laws by using climate-friendly investment strategies to suppress the supply of coal.
That suit followed bans against ESG investing across numerous Republican-controlled states, with pressure expected to step up now that US president-elect Donald Trump is headed for a second term in the White House.
Against that backdrop, banks and asset managers have scaled back their association with high-profile climate groups.
In August, the asset management arm of Goldman said it had quit the world’s biggest climate alliance for investors, known as Climate Action 100+ (CA100+). Other firms that have quit the alliance include the asset management arm of JPMorgan Chase & Co and Pacific Investment Management Co.
On Friday, Franklin Templeton said it “won’t renew its status” as a signatory with CA100+.
CA100+, the world’s largest investor group formed to fight climate change, had been helpful in providing early-stages support, but Franklin Templeton has now built enough internal expertise around climate investing to no longer require the assistance of the group, the company said in a statement.
A separate climate alliance for insurers, NZIA, was gripped by an exodus last year, as firms responded to threats of antitrust litigation brought by US Republican state attorneys general, while a net zero alliance for asset managers suffered a blow when Vanguard, the world’s second-largest money manager, quit back in 2022.
SETBACK: Apple’s India iPhone push has been disrupted after Foxconn recalled hundreds of Chinese engineers, amid Beijing’s attempts to curb tech transfers Apple Inc assembly partner Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known internationally as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has recalled about 300 Chinese engineers from a factory in India, the latest setback for the iPhone maker’s push to rapidly expand in the country. The extraction of Chinese workers from the factory of Yuzhan Technology (India) Private Ltd, a Hon Hai component unit, in southern Tamil Nadu state, is the second such move in a few months. The company has started flying in Taiwanese engineers to replace staff leaving, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named, as the
The prices of gasoline and diesel at domestic fuel stations are to rise NT$0.1 and NT$0.4 per liter this week respectively, after international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to rise to NT$27.3, NT$28.8 and NT$30.8 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to rise to NT$26.2 per liter at CPC stations and NT$26 at Formosa pumps, they said. The announcements came after international crude oil prices
A German company is putting used electric vehicle batteries to new use by stacking them into fridge-size units that homes and businesses can use to store their excess solar and wind energy. This week, the company Voltfang — which means “catching volts” — opened its first industrial site in Aachen, Germany, near the Belgian and Dutch borders. With about 100 staff, Voltfang says it is the biggest facility of its kind in Europe in the budding sector of refurbishing lithium-ion batteries. Its CEO David Oudsandji hopes it would help Europe’s biggest economy ween itself off fossil fuels and increasingly rely on climate-friendly renewables. While
SinoPac Financial Holdings Co (永豐金控) is weighing whether to add a life insurance business to its portfolio, but would tread cautiously after completing three acquisitions in quick succession, president Stanley Chu (朱士廷) said yesterday. “We are carefully considering whether life insurance should play a role in SinoPac’s business map,” Chu told reporters ahead of an earnings conference. “Our priority is to ensure the success of the deals we have already made, even though we are tracking some possible targets.” Local media have reported that Mercuries Life Insurance Co (三商美邦人壽), which is seeking buyers amid financial strains, has invited three financial