Now, the challenge is to prove to the world that an industry that’s channeled trillions of dollars into fossil-fuel finance since the 2015 Paris accord can plausibly reform itself fast enough to avoid a climate catastrophe.
Early adherents include the global giants of finance. BlackRock Inc., HSBC Holdings Plc, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank AG and UBS AG were some of the first to add their names to the initiative. But there were plenty of holdouts. Wall Street titan JPMorgan Chase & Co., the world’s biggest provider of fossil-fuel finance, only signed up last month, as did Wells Fargo & Co.Article content
Carney is expected to lay out progress that GFANZ has made on a number of its goals, including its US$100 trillion target. He’s also likely to flesh out the mechanics of entwining every financial decision with climate considerations and how banks can support the energy transition in emerging economies.
Critics say Carney’s net-zero alliance has yet to prove it can stop the finance industry plowing cash into fossil fuels. French nonprofit Reclaim Finance says none of the alliances that make up GFANZ requires signatories to stop financing fossil-fuel expansion. There are also no “numerical limits on the use of offsets for meeting company emission reduction targets,” it said.
“Employing weak metrics, ducking the hard questions of offsets and absolute emissions, and resolutely ignoring the elephant in the room that is fossil fuels, these financial alliances are failing to address the urgency of the climate crisis,” said Patrick McCully, senior analyst for Reclaim Finance.Patrick McCully, senior analyst, Reclaim Finance
Climatic deniers have so much in common with Anti-Vac. the same lack of reason, the usual fear and hatred as usual. Good Canadians know better. 🇨🇦