“The alliance's some 140 bank members have committed to align their lending and investment to a goal of zeroing out greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. But the net-zero transition”, By Doug Sheridan

“The WSJ Editorial Board writes, the climate policy climbdown is accelerating as Citi, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley this week joined an exodus from the Net-Zero Banking Alliance. Energy reality

The WSJ Editorial Board writes, the climate policy climbdown is accelerating as Citi, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley this week joined an exodus from the Net-Zero Banking Alliance. Energy reality can bite.

The NZBA alliance is part of the United Nations "Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero" effort to conscript private capital to drive the left's climate goals. It was spearheaded by former Bank of England Governor Mark Carney in 2021. That was the year of peak climate arm-twisting.

The alliance's some 140 bank members have committed to align their lending and investment to a goal of zeroing out greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. But the net-zero transition keeps getting set back.

Automakers are slowing their EV production plans. Utilities are extending the lifespan of coal plants to keep the lights on. Offshore wind projects are being canceled because they aren't economic. Even California last month indefinitely delayed its plan to shut down a giant natural gas storage facility.

State Attorneys General have threatened banks and asset managers with antitrust lawsuits for participating in such outfits as NZBA. The bank members are de facto committing to divest from fossil fuels by 2050, which may violate their fiduciary duty to customers and investors. Many are deciding the potential legal headaches aren't worth it.

Vanguard in late 2022 pulled out of the Net Zero Asset Managers pledge. J.P. Morgan Asset Management, BlackRock BLK and State Street Global Advisors last February retreated from a Climate Action 100+ compact. Now the big banks are joining Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo, which quit the alliance last month. Net zero is becoming a much smaller club.

Our Take 1: Boom! This a full-on "pack your bags, write the note, we are outta here" retreat by some of the world's largest companies who just a few years ago lazily signed onto movements that themselves relied upon a lazy vision of a net-zero world that would never be.

Our Take 2: We wonder if any of the execs of these organizations, and their boards, now wish they had shown the courage to resist these vacuous movements back in 2021. The world was never going to turn away from the very forms of energy that move the wheels of the global economy. That the heads of these and other institutions ever thought it was a good idea to try is a sign of just how zany things had gotten over climate change.