(Reuters) – Wells Fargo has withdrawn from a group of global banks committed to curbing greenhouse gas emissions, increasing the number of high-profile firms exiting climate initiatives amid mounting political pressure.
The bank has ended its membership in the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, a spokesperson said on Friday, two weeks after another notable exit by Goldman Sachs.
Financial firms, which have long been criticized for their ties to the fossil fuel industry, have tried to integrate net-zero standards more prominently into their operations. But more recently, they have started to scale back some of those initiatives to avoid irking Republicans.
GOP officials have cracked down on companies they view as climate-friendly. Last month, asset management giants BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street were accused of violating antitrust law through climate activism in a lawsuit by Texas and 10 other Republican-led states.
Wells Fargo, however, did not give a reason behind the move.
“The alliance prefers not to see any bank leave but respects the decision Wells Fargo has made based on its own individual circumstances,” an NZBA spokesperson said.
The NZBA is a group of banks “committed to aligning their lending and investment portfolios with net-zero emissions by 2050,” according to its website.
Since the UN-backed alliance was founded in April 2021, it has attracted over 100 banks while five have left, the group’s spokesperson said.
“The overall increase in membership indicates how important understanding climate risk and the transition to net zero has become to banks and companies around the world,” they added.
Wells Fargo’s exit was first reported by Bloomberg News earlier on Friday.
(Reporting by Niket Nishant in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)
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