JPMorgan Chase & Co. is the latest major financial institution to leave the Net-Zero Banking Alliance.
On Jan. 7, the New York-based financial services company confirmed in a statement its departure from the United Nations-backed alliance.
“We will continue to work independently to advance the interests of our firm, our shareholders, and our clients, and remain focused on pragmatic solutions to help further low-carbon technologies while advancing energy security,” a JPMorgan company spokesperson said in a statement.
“We will also continue to support the banking and investment needs of our clients who are engaged in energy transition and in decarbonizing different sectors of the economy.”
Net zero is a term for the practice of balancing greenhouse gas emissions with the amount taken out of the atmosphere.
On its website, JPMorgan outlines its own net-zero strategy. The company said its plan is focused on aligning “key sectors” of its financing portfolio with “net zero emissions outcomes.”
In its 2024 Climate Report, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said the company aims to “finance and facilitate $1 trillion to support the development and scaling of climate initiatives by 2030.”
“While we’re proud of the progress we’ve made deploying our capital, data, and expertise to support our clients, we also make our own decisions, use our judgment, make adjustments as needed, and speak with our own voice,” Dimon said in an undated letter included in JPMorgan’s 2024 Climate Report.
Representatives of JPMorgan did not respond to a request for comment from The Epoch Times by publication time.
The statement came less than a week after Morgan Stanley announced it would leave the same climate pledge. On Dec. 31, 2024, Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp. said they were quitting the alliance. Those exits followed the December 2024 exit of Wells Fargo & Co. and The Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
On its website, the Net-Zero Banking Alliance calls itself a “group of leading global banks committed to aligning their lending, investment, and capital markets activities with net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.” The group is affiliated with the U.N. Environment Programme Finance Initiative.
In its most recent annual progress report, published in October 2024, the group said its membership had grown to 144 banks since its founding in April 2021.
In November 2024, 11 state attorneys general, led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, filed an anti-trust suit against BlackRock, Vanguard Group, and State Street Corp.
In a statement released on Nov. 27, 2024, Paxton said the three companies “formed a cartel to rig the coal market, artificially reduce the energy supply, and raise prices.”
The three companies weaponized influence from their stock holdings to pressure coal companies to accommodate green energy goals and reduce coal output by more than half by 2030, Paxton’s statement said.
