Canada’s last large bank left the Net Zero Union

Information was announced by the Royal Canadian Bank (RBC) last weekend, after the departure of other big banks such as TD, Montreal, the National Bank of Canada and the Royal Canadian Commercial Bank (CIBC).

RBC is the largest capitalization bank in Canada, with 250 billion CAD (nearly 170 billion USD) as of February 3. Spokesman RBC said they left the Net Zero Banking Union (NZBA) because they owned tools, ability to perform and measure the performance of climate strategies.

Net Zero Banking Union (NZBA) is the initiative of former Canadian Governor Mark Carney, founded in 2021 under the support of the United Nations. The alliance gathered leading banks in the global, committed to adjusting lending, investment and capital markets according to the goal of greenhouse gas emissions in 0 by 2050.

The wave of the US and Canada banks left the NZBA alliance with Goldman Sachs in early December last year, after months of pressure from some Republican politicians.

These politicians believe that participating in climate alliances may violate the anti -monopoly rules, causing capital to fall into fossil fuel companies. The pressure on the climate alliance members increased after the Republican Party won overwhelming in the election and Donald Trump became the second US president.

The move of Goldman Sachs entails the wave of leaving NZBA, including the Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Jpmorgan Chase, and recently a large series of Canadian banks.

When Goldman Sachs – the first bank to leave, the total assets of this alliance were 73,000 billion USD. After the consecutive departure of large banks from the US and Canada, the total assets of the alliance members were 56,000 billion USD. Despite leaving the alliance, banks said they still kept a commitment to implement climate change plans.