Wall Street Bankers Told They Can Set Own CO2 Terms After Spat

(Bloomberg) — The world’s biggest climate-finance alliance has sought to dismiss reports that a number of Wall Street banks are threatening to leave, as it races to bring its house in order in the run-up to next month’s COP27 climate summit.

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In a statement to Bloomberg News on Saturday, a spokesperson for the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero said the group has “received no indication from any of our members that they intend to leave.”

GFANZ, which brings together over 500 finance firms managing more than $135 trillion of assets, has faced possible defections from firms including JPMorgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley and Bank of America Corp., according to people familiar with the process. The heavyweights were unhappy with the potential addition of binding restrictions on fossil finance, the people said.

Tensions soared after a United Nations-backed group, Race to Zero, earlier this year proposed such terms as a necessary condition for net-zero claims to be credible. That language was subsequently softened, and in its statement on Saturday, GFANZ said each sub-alliance of the group is “subject only to their own governance structures,” essentially giving them the freedom to ignore such proposals.

Mark Carney, GFANZ co-chair, has already publicly admonished Race to Zero for going “too far.” Jakob Thomae, an advisory board member of GFANZ, says he expects parts of GFANZ will eventually sever ties with Race to Zero and seek a more…