The global coalitions for financial institution net zero efforts are on the defensive in response to the shifting policy landscape. Recent media reports suggest that the Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) is considering loosening or even removing some of its accountability processes as part of a wider overhaul. The Net Zero Asset Managers initiative (NZAMi) removed its commitment statement, list of signatories, and targets from its website in January.
These adjustments at the world’s most prominent net zero coalitions have attracted criticism and concern over how best to raise ambition and keep track of financial institution progress on their own net zero commitments. However, independent research organizations may be better placed to support these roles.
NZBA, NZAMi, and other alliances play key roles in driving meaningful action in the financial sector. CPI’s research shows significant correlation between financial institutions’ coalition membership and progress on climate-related goals. For instance, European pension funds that were part of a net-zero coalition were six times more likely to adopt climate targets and five times more likely to implement actionable decarbonization measures than their non-member counterparts.
Work by CPI and other independent research organizations shows that financial institutions that have joined climate alliances tend to outperform others on climate-related indicators. These include setting mitigation targets, policy engagement, and disclosing climate risks and investment data. However, progress on real-world impacts to address climate change remains elusive.
The question, then, is whether disclosure and accountability processes via net zero alliances are best suited to support meaningful progress.
These alliances tend to report aggregate data on all members. No doubt, this is useful for banks and other financial institutions to benchmark their performance against peers and to learn how others are tackling climate-related business and technical challenges. However, it is less useful to regulators, supervisors, or investors, as it does not allow them to compare individual institutions’ performance to each other, and certainly not against entities outside of these alliances.
On the other hand, independent platforms such as CPI’s Net Zero Finance Tracker use data from diverse sources to close reporting gaps and enable comparison of individual institutions. The NZFT delivers an independent view of progress toward net-zero goals by aggregating data from multiple third-party sources to create a standardized assessment of nearly 1,000 financial institutions globally.
By providing clear, open, actionable data, initiatives like the NZFT enable stakeholders—including civil society, regulators, and investors—to identify leaders, laggards, and opportunities to improve climate finance practices.
As climate coalitions pivot their net-zero transition work in response to political and economic changes, we can look to existing efforts by independent organizations to fill information gaps. The work of these coalitions remains vital. They can—and should—continue to provide guidance and support to their members on transition efforts, while independent providers give key stakeholders data they need to assess financial institutions’ progress and impact.
About CPI’s Net Zero Finance Tracker
With around 15 indicators across financial institutions’ net zero action from targets, through implementation to real-world impact on the ground, the interactive NZFT data platform provides the most comprehensive available assessment of transition progress in financial sector.
The platform offers broad coverage of financial institutions’ net zero progress, tracking around 1,000 entities in 2024 and expanding to 2,000 of the largest financial players globally by 2025. Users can explore the data by filtering country, (sub)sector, and coalition type to identify both aggregate and institution-specific information. Updated on an annual basis, it currently provides data from 2019 to 2023. As the platform continues to expand, it serves as a useful tool for investors, financial institutions, and policymakers to track progress and drive accountability in the transition to a low-carbon economy.
