A United Nations-backed climate club for asset managers, which shut down a year ago as members quit en masse, has reformed and relaunched, with 250 firms signing on. [some emphasis, links added]
Facing antitrust scrutiny from U.S. state and federal officials, the U.N.-sponsored Net Zero Asset Managers (NZAM) initiative announced in January 2025 that it would suspend its activities, after BlackRock and 32 other U.S. companies, including Capital Group, JPMorgan Asset Management, and Franklin Templeton, abruptly quit the group.
Vanguard had exited NZAM in 2022.
Until it ceased operations in 2025, NZAM membership included commitments to cut global greenhouse gas emissions across members’ investment portfolios and to align their investments with U.N. net-zero goals.
Increasingly, members of NZAM and other climate alliances faced pressure from some state attorneys general, including threats of antitrust actions for alleged collusion against American coal, gas, and oil companies, and allegations that they had violated their fiduciary obligations by pursuing political goals with their investors’ money.
Many state treasurers had also threatened asset managers with boycotts regarding state funds.
On Feb. 25, NZAM reemerged with looser membership criteria that it hopes will attract the members who had departed, recognizing that members can only do what the laws and regulations in their home jurisdictions allow.
To date, however, only 12 U.S. fund managers have rejoined—down from 44 who were members at the organization’s peak in 2024.
Environmental groups have hailed NZAM’s revival.
In a statement, the Sierra Club called it “an important signal that many firms are not abandoning basic climate commitments,” but cautioned that “the real test is whether managers are shifting capital toward climate solutions, ending support for new fossil fuel expansion, and using their leverage to secure credible transition plans from portfolio companies.”
Critics said their concerns have not been assuaged by NZAM’s more permissive criteria.
“This relaunch is an attempt to repackage a Euro-style coordinated investing scheme in language they believe will survive U.S. antitrust and fiduciary scrutiny,” Derek Kreifels, CEO of Prospr Aligned, which advises states on corporate proxy voting, told The Epoch Times.
“Rebranding does not change the underlying collectivism.”
Read rest at The Epoch Times
