By Stephen Morris, Kenza Bryan and Owen Walker
Wall Street banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley and Bank of America Corp. have threatened to leave … the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) [saying] they feel blindsided by tougher UN climate criteria and are worried about the legal risks of participation, according to several people involved in internal discussions.
“I am close to taking us out of these global green commitments — I’m not going to allow third parties to create legal liabilities for us and our shareholders. It is immoral and irresponsible,” one senior executive at a United States bank said.
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Banks’ legal departments are particularly anxious about tougher U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rules around climate-risk disclosures and commitments proposed by SEC chair Gary Gensler in February.
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Bankers … also point out the lack of GFANZ members from China, Russia and India — three of the world’s top carbon-emitting countries.
For the full story in the Financial Post, click here.
Stephen Morris, Kenza Bryan, and Owen Walker write for the Financial Times.
For more on threats from government and private ESG efforts, click here and here.
