Provide members with more flexible temperature targets
More than 80% of members voted; 90% voted in favor
Climate ambitions as real economy, policy and technology lag
LONDON, April 15 (Reuters) – The world’s leading banking alliance hopes to address climate change has voted to abandon some stricter membership rules to better reflect the slow pace of real economic change, its chairman told Reuters.
The unsupported zero banking alliance has withdrawn members for members in terms of withdrawing changes to rules in the alliance’s largest banks, and has called for abandoning climate action in the financial sector as U.S. leaders call for the abandonment of climate action in the financial sector.
The bank voted to abandon a stricter goal, align all sector financing with 1.5 degrees Celsius before the mid-century and replace it with more flexible ambitions to align its business with a good 2 degree goal, but is still struggling with 1.5 degrees.
These changes reflect the realization that the actual economy has become more sustainable during the transition period, while policy-making and technological advancements are not at the rate of forecasts, when banks and asset managers first gather together to announce collective climate action in COP26 in Glasgow.
“In 2021, the knowledge we can achieve in 2021 is very different from what we are today,” said Shargiil Bashir, Chief Sustainability Officer and Executive Vice President.
“Some industries have not transitioned as they did four years ago because the technology is not moving fast or the decisions are not moving that fast,” he said.
More than 100 group member banks have set a 1.5-degree sector target, but the group wants to attract banks to strengthen their numbers in countries that are inconsistent to 1.5-degree.
Bashir said the overhaul reflects the next phase of the NZBA as it mainly shifts from a goal-setting organization to an organization that implements these changes through webinars, departmental papers and other capacity-building activities.
Bashir said options to be discussed include how the financial industry uses different accounting methods to calculate or reduce planetary warming emissions, such as emissions avoided or carbon markets.
More than 80% of NZBA members voted, while 90% voted in favor of these proposals. (Reported by Virginia Furness; Edited by Stephen Coates)
