Introduction

Our goal is to provide high-quality data to evaluate and compare the progress banks are making in aligning their financing activities with the goals of the Paris Agreement. In 2024, the TPI Centre assessed 26 major international banks, 10 US super-regional banks, and two custodian banks on two elements:

  1. Net Zero Banking Assessment Framework (NZBAF), an investor-led framework developed in consultation with IIGCC and Ceres evaluating banks on 72 sub-indicators across ten areas, such as their decarbonisation strategy, climate governance, or exposure and emissions disclosure.
  2. Carbon Performance, an in-depth quantitative assessment of which sectors and business activities are covered by banks’ decarbonisation targets over different timeframes and their level of alignment with low carbon benchmarks (1.5°C, Below 2°C, International and National Pledges).

Average bank score across each area

Assessment Date:
Assessed banks alignment across the ten areas (% of sub-indicators aligned with)

Methodology

The banking sector has a critical role to play in the low-carbon transition, incentivising emissions reductions in the real economy through climate-aware financing. The TPI Centre in partnership with the Institutional Investor Group on Climate Change (IIGCC), developed an investor-led pilot framework of indicators to assess the preparedness of banks for the low-carbon transition. Our framework sets an action-focused roadmap for banks to align their financing activities with the goals of the Paris Agreement. In summer 2022, the TPI Centre published a report describing our methodology and pilot analysis of 27 banks. A new version of the Framework and assessments was published in summer 2023.
Publications

05/06/2023

The Net Zero Banking Assessment Framework has been developed by the Transition Pathway Initiative Global Climate Transition Centre (TPI Centre), in collaboration with the Institutional Investor Group on Climate Change (IIGCC) and Ceres, to assess the preparedness of banks for the low-carbon transition.

Banking Banks Methodology