(Reuters) – U.S. bank Citigroup said on Tuesday it would withdraw from the Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA), a group of global banks committed to curbing greenhouse gas emissions.
The move makes Citigroup the third major U.S. financial institution to leave the group, following Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs, which departed earlier this month.
Financial companies, which have historically been criticized for their ties to the fossil fuel industry, have sought to incorporate net-zero standards more prominently into their operations.
But it has begun scaling back some efforts to avoid provoking Republican policymakers who oppose limits on fossil fuel financing.
City are making progress towards their net zero target and have announced their decision to withdraw from the NZBA.
The NZBA aims to achieve net zero carbon emissions from its members' lending and investment portfolios by 2050.
Last month, BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street were sued by Texas and 10 other Republican-led states, alleging that the large asset managers violated antitrust laws through their climate change efforts to reduce coal production and raise energy prices. It was done.
(Reporter Prakhar Srivastava in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid)
