Two of the five Australian banks remaining in the Net Zero Bank Alliance are sending mixed signals about their future involvement in the compact after investment powerhouse Macquarie pulled out earlier this week.
Macquarie buried the news that it would withdraw The Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) 367 words into a 408 word press release on Tuesday, despite having worked to cultivate an image as a “green investor” in recent years.
“The [NZBA] helped develop global frameworks and assisted member banks as they established their initial decarbonisation plans,” it said. “With those building blocks now in place, like many peers Macquarie will no longer be a member of NZBA, as we focus on updating and delivering our plans and reporting in line with regulatory requirements.”
The NZBA is an UN-sponsored initiative launched in 2021 to encourage member financial institutions to redirect investment towards renewable energy and away from new fossil fuel projects.
With Macquarie’s withdrawal, the remaining Australian members include: ANZ Group Holdings, Bank of Queensland, Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank and Westpac.
Renew Economy contacted the remaining banks to ask whether they intended to remain within the alliance.
Of the four responses, Westpac and Bank of Queensland confirmed they remained committed to the agreement.
A spokesperson for Commonwealth Bank spokesperson said the institution “remains committed to the NZBA” but added that “in August we will consider any changes to our current commitments when we update our Environmental & Social Framework as part of our reporting suite.”
These comments align with recent statements made by Commonwealth Bank CEO Matt Comyn on Wednesday.
But NAB and ANZ weren’t quite as clear. A spokesperson for NAB declined to comment and a spokesperson for the ANZ did not address direct questions about whether the institution would remain within the NZBA.
“ANZ is the largest domestic lender to Australia’s energy sector, the most carbon intensive part of our economy. Our focus is on supporting our customers to improve their transition plans, including by providing finance,” the ANZ spokesperson said.
Kyle Robertson, a senior bank analyst from Market Forces, said Macquarie flagged the decision a month ago when the US banks began to exit the NZBA but he did not expect other banks with a significant retail presence to follow suit for risk of damaging their brand.
“They’re under pressure from their customers but also their shareholders to have a plan to align their business with 1.5C. that’s growing each year,” Robertson said. “The Australian banks, in the last couple of years, have come pretty far – we’re at a point now where ten years ago it was a massive fight to stop banks from investing in the Adani coal mine.”
“That’s a project the Big Four banks would never dream of investing in anymore.”
However, he said a Coalition win at the upcoming federal election could change how major financial institutions publicly communicate about climate change.
“Dutton has made it very clear that his intention and his government’s intention is to intervene in the banking sector and force them to lend to ‘credit worthy’ institutions,” he said.
Climate Energy Finance founder Tim Buckley said Macquarie’s decision was predictable after a determined campaign against Environmental Social Governance (ESG) investing in jurisdictions like Texas and Florida.
“Financial institutions are almost as spineless as Australian politicians, but at the end of the day they’re amoral,” Buckley said. “I don’t think I would have expected the Macquarie group board to show more spine than Citigroup, JP Morgan or Goldman Sachs, but I don’t expect a cascade effect.
“If it’s all about maximising profit and minimising risk, and Trump is a massive risk, why take it on?”
Macquarie has been a major investor in renewable energy infrastructure but is also heavily involved in trading oil and gas commodities and maintains “an enormous coal trading book” that left it directly exposed to an ascendent right wing in the US.
Donald Trump’s re-election and purge of “climate change” from government documents has only turbocharged the war on “woke banks”, prompting Goldman Sachs, to leave in December, soon followed by Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan.
In Canada, TD Bank, Bank of Montreal, National Bank of Canada and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce also withdrew.
Macquarie did not say why it was leaving in its press release but did say it would provide an update on its climate activities in its annual report in May 2025.
Buckley said the investment needed in the infrastructure to deal with climate change represented a “multi-trillion dollar opportunity” that he didn’t expect Macquarie to pass up.
“Renewables are very capital intensive unlike coal and gas which is fuel-intensive,” he said. “They’re not going to walk away from an opportunity because there’s an idiot in the White House.”
“They’re very good at making money.”
