Bank climate group backs strategy shift

Industry shift: Office workers walk near the Goldman Sachs Group headquarters in New York. Requirements such as the need to set five-year goals for reducing the financed emissions from high-carbon sectors will now become recommendations. — Bloomberg

WASHINGTON: Most banks in the industry’s biggest climate alliance endorsed a proposal that will refocus the group on providing financial support for the energy transition and also hold signatories to a less stringent standard for reducing the emissions enabled by their lending.

Shargiil Bashir, chair of the steering group for the Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA), said in an interview that “well above” two-thirds of members voted on implementing a new strategy, and of those, more than 90% support the new direction.