In a statement this week, Macquarie said it will no longer be a member of the UN-backed NZBA, noting that while the alliance helped it establish its initial decarbonisation plan, “with those building blocks now in place”, membership is no longer necessary.
“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 bank said, adding it will provide a further update on its decarbonisation progress in its annual report in May 2025.
Macquarie follows peers including Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase & Co and Goldman Sachs Group, all of which have exited on the back of Trump’s anti-environmental, social and governance (ESG) rhetoric.
Top Canadian banks have also followed suit, with BMO and National Bank, among others, joining their US peers recently.
Still part of the NZBA are Australia’s ANZ, Bank of Queensland, CBA, NAB and Westpac.
Commenting on Macquarie’s exit, Kyle Robertson, senior banks analyst at Market Forces, said: “It’s senseless that Macquarie has pulled out of the Net-Zero Banking Alliance when the goals of the Paris Agreement are in jeopardy.
“Macquarie’s betrayal of its net zero commitments are consistent with its recent decision to pour $65 million into the country’s biggest new gas development, the Beetaloo Basin,” Robertson said.
“After years of touting itself as a green bank, Macquarie is showing its true colours following the big US banks into undermining global climate goals.”
Earlier this week, Market Forces accused 10 retail banks in Australia of committing $74.4 billion in finance to fossil fuel companies around the world in 2023.
“It’s good news that most Australian banks don’t provide any money to fossil fuels but Australia’s major banks, ANZ, NAB, Westpac, CommBank and Macquarie committed more than $8.1 billion to coal, oil and gas in 2023,” Robertson said, adding that ANZ led with $2.6 billion, while Macquarie Bank was third, committing more than $1.3 billion to fossil fuels.
Moreover, the group alleged that between 2016 and 2023, after the Paris Agreement was signed to limit global warming, 10 of 103 retail banks operating in Australia committed $753 billion to coal, oil and gas globally.
Late last year, Dugald Higgins, Zenith’s head of responsible investment and sustainability, warned that Trump 2.0 could usher in “ESG weaponisation 2.0”, forcing the concept further underground.
“You will probably see more US managers in this space shut down products, some of them might even shut down businesses because Trump 2.0 is effectively going to be leading to the ESG weaponisation 2.0,” he said.
“I think that is going to be the biggest risk that is going to drive the ESG as a term underground.”
Higgins at the time explained that many fund managers and businesses deploying capital anticipated this shift before the US election, with several moving to reposition portfolios in anticipation of Trump’s White House takeover.
However, not everyone agrees with Higgins, with co-chiefs of the Responsible Investment Association of Australasia Estelle Parker and Dean Hegarty suggesting that good investors “think long term, well beyond a four-year presidency”.
“Regardless of who is in the White House, the global transition to a low-carbon economy continues and investors remain focused on managing risks and opportunities that will shape the decades ahead” the pair said in a recent market note.
Moreover, the co-CEOs pointed to recent Morningstar data which found that global sustainable fund assets reached an all-time high of US$3.2 trillion at the end of 2024, an 8 per cent increase from the previous year.
“Despite a decline in inflows during the year due to factors like some underperformance of ESG strategies, greenwashing concerns and anti-ESG sentiment, sustainable funds saw a strong rebound in Q4, with inflows rising to US$16 billion from US$9.2 billion in Q3,” they said.
