South-east Asian banks must keep up decarbonisation efforts despite lower climate targets

[SINGAPORE] The Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) recently lowered its climate ambition requirements for member banks, but South-east Asian banks in the alliance should not interpret this as a green light to slow down their pace of decarbonisation. 

In fact, given that changes to NZBA’s guidance have attracted criticisms from climate groups and raised concerns over financial institutions’ climate commitments, the onus is on these banks to show that the less-ambitious climate targets can still result in meaningful real-world decarbonisation. 

NZBA announced about a month ago that it was dropping its requirements for member banks’ net-zero targets to be aligned with a decarbonisation pathway that limits global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial level.