The UN-convened Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) has published its 2024 progress report that claims that most NZBA banks are taking significant steps towards meeting their climate goals.

However, BankTrack has not been impressed, saying that the report “shows no progress towards reaching net-zero.”

NZBA membership has reached 144 banks and a further twenty-three of them are expected to set targets and publish their individual transition plans by the end of 2025.

As of end-May 2024 97 per cent of the 122 banks due to have set their first sectoral targets have done so, nearly two-thirds of the 91 banks due to publish transition plans have done so, with 25 per cent more expected by year-end and round four-fifths of the 50 banks due to publish a full set of targets have done so.

BankTrack remains critical of the methodology, claiming the NZBA leaves out substantial information regarding net-zero alignment and only focuses on target-related outputs with no assessment being made of member banks’ actual progress towards their sectoral targets, and therefore, to their net-zero objective. BankTrack says its data shows most banks are reducing their financed emissions in these sectors, some are doing the opposite, and it shows that having a target in place does not in itself ensure that banks are actually reducing their emissions towards it.

The NZBA said: “These are visible signs of a transformative shift that has taken place over the past three years as banks position themselves to understand and finance the transition to net-zero.”

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