Climate groups urge Treasury to hold Wall Street accountable for transition plans in light of investor pressure

WASHINGTON D.C. – In light of the results at the 2023 shareholder season of major US Banks, environmental and consumer advocacy groups in the Stop the Money Pipeline coalition are renewing pressure on the Treasury Department to encourage banks to generate transition plans aligned with credible scientific scenarios. In April, a substantial portion of shareholders at Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo and Bank of America voted in support of a resolution calling on banks to generate transition plans to meet their 2030 and 2050 climate goals. And just yesterday, 35% of shareholders voted to support the same resolution at JP Morgan Chase’s shareholder meeting. The climate groups want Treasury to issue guidance on transition plans that:

include a phase-out of all financing for existing fossil fuel projects and companies, as advised by the International Energy Association in 2021;
align to credible scientific scenarios, not just to the needs of the institution creating the plan;
include a complete exit from sectors such as coal mining, coal power, tar sands oil, extractive industries in the Arctic and Amazon, fracked oil and gas, offshore oil and gas, and liquified natural gas;
do not rely on forest offsets, unproven carbon capture and storage technologies, and removal and trade schemes to “compensate”–falsely–for a lack of emissions reductions;
relate not only to their own transition risks, but also to risks banks pose to the health of our planet–health necessary for the health of other financial entities and the financial system;
adhere to a precautionary approach to managing climate-related financial risk, as the uncertainty inherent in the effects of the climate crisis make it unsuitable for managing via risk modeling and quantification alone;
adopt strong, binding policies to respect Indigenous peoples’ right to sovereignty and self-determination which includes Free, Prior, and Informed Consent, an internationally recognized standard;

Member organizations of the coalition have had meetings with staff experts at Treasury in the past. Read the November 2022 letter to Treasury on climate principles.

Net Zero by 2050: A Roadmap for the Global Energy Sector, International Energy Agency, May 2021.

Anne M. Perrault and Gael Giraud. “Trickle-down Climate Risk Regulation.” Science 377, no. 6610. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.ade2017, September 1, 2022.