In the United States, the anti-ESG backlash has led to the dismantling of major banking alliances on climate. In France, the shift has been less conspicuous: environmental commitments are fading from institutional messaging but remain embedded in customer offerings and risk management. ESG is not disappearing. It is moving to a different arena, where demands for evidence are becoming more stringent. 

In 2015, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney warned of the “tragedy of the horizon.” His point was simple: climate change will inflict damage beyond the time horizon of financial decision-making, leaving few market participants with a short-term incentive to pay today for risks that will materialize tomorrow. 

Six years later, together with the UK presidency of COP26, he launched the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, designed to coordinate financial-sector initiatives in support of carbon neutrality. That same day, 43 banks created the Net-Zero Banking Alliance under the auspices of the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative. The NZBA became one of the coalition’s founding members and eventually brought together nearly 150 institutions. On October 3, 2025, following a vote by its members, the alliance announced that it would cease operations. 

Many saw the move as evidence that banks were abandoning ESG. In France, the picture is more nuanced: ESG remains, but it is now directed more toward customers than investors. 

A break with the past, driven by the United States 

Since 2021, several conservative U.S. states have imposed penalties on banks deemed hostile to the oil and gas industry. Banks belonging to climate alliances have been among the primary targets, facing measures ranging from placement on “blacklists” to the loss of public pension fund management mandates and exclusion from certain municipal contracts. Voluntary commitments once viewed as a reputational asset have thus become a competitive disadvantage in parts of the U.S. market. 

The federal government subsequently changed course as well. The SEC, the U.S. counterpart to France’s Autorité des marchés financiers, stopped defending in court the climate disclosure rules adopted the previous year. In May 2026, it proposed rescinding them entirely. 

The result: all six of the largest U.S. banks left the Net-Zero Banking Alliance between December 2024 and January 2025, shortly before Donald Trump’s second inauguration. Several Canadian and Japanese banks followed, as did HSBC and Barclays. 

French banks stay the course, but go their separate ways 

France’s six largest banking groups were also members of the alliance. Yet while HSBC pushed back its net-zero target for its own operations by 20 years and Wells Fargo dropped its financed-emissions targets, the French Banking Federation told Agence France-Presse that the end of the NZBA’s activities would not change its members’ approach. Their commitments remain in place, but the collective framework that gave them visibility and made it possible to compare their trajectories has disappeared. 

This lower profile may reflect greenhushing: some institutions continue to pursue climate policies while communicating less about them in an effort to reduce reputational and litigation risks. But reduced communication alone is not enough to conclude that commitments remain unchanged. Those commitments need to be assessed against sector policies, published targets, and actual financing flows. 

Industry figures point in the same direction. According to the French Banking Federation, green and sustainable lending by French banks reached €510 billion in 2025, up 37% in two years. That aggregate figure, however, does not provide a complete picture of their portfolios. 

The *Banking on Climate Chaos* report, published in June 2026 by eight NGOs including Reclaim Finance, paints a more mixed picture. While global fossil-fuel financing rose again in 2025, French banks reduced their financing of companies developing new fossil-fuel projects, with Société Générale a notable exception. Most, however, increased their financing of gas pipelines and LNG terminals. 

In customer relationships, ESG remains a selling point 

Even as ESG recedes from institutional messaging, it remains highly visible in consumer marketing. Sustainable-branded savings accounts and funds, “impact” savings products, carbon-footprint features in mobile banking apps, and cards made from recycled materials all illustrate the growing role of environmental claims in customer relationships. 

Our 2026 TNP Sustainable Finance Benchmark shows growth in green offerings across mortgages, consumer lending, savings, and payment products. The range is broadest in savings: by 2026, 1,045 funds had received France’s ISR sustainable investment label under its new standards, representing an estimated €800 billion in assets under management. 

Regulators are closely monitoring these practices, and their findings have been critical. As early as 2022, France’s Prudential Supervision and Resolution Authority, or ACPR, identified vague or misleading environmental claims in life-insurance advertising and subsequently issued recommendations governing their use. In February 2026, the AMF similarly found that distribution networks selling sustainable funds still had an imperfect grasp of the rules governing such claims and relied heavily on the asset managers that design the products. 

Overall, banks communicate less about their financing portfolios than about their savings products. In the first case, disclosure exposes them to NGO criticism and litigation risk. In the second, ESG serves as a sales proposition—albeit under increasingly close regulatory scrutiny. 

Obligations are replacing ESG promises 

Several regulatory developments are reshaping this balance. The “Omnibus” directive, which took effect in March 2026, substantially reduces disclosure requirements. At the same time, the European Banking Authority’s guidelines on climate-risk management have applied since January 2026 to institutions other than small and non-complex institutions, which have been granted additional time to comply. For the banks concerned, the challenge is becoming less about issuing more statements and more about identifying exposed assets, measuring risks, and assessing them over an appropriate time horizon. 

Meanwhile, scrutiny of environmental marketing claims is intensifying. Beginning September 27, 2026, the EU directive known as EmpCo will prohibit certain generic environmental claims as well as carbon-neutrality claims based solely on offsetting emissions. 

The collective framework provided by the climate banking alliance therefore unraveled just as regulatory constraints were changing in nature: fewer companies are required to publish detailed information, but banks must integrate ESG risks more thoroughly and provide stronger substantiation for their commercial claims. 

In an op-ed published by Le Monde in May 2026, management researcher Jean-Pierre Bouchez argued that regulatory and judicial pressure, far more than voluntary commitments, can provide an answer to the tragedy of the horizon described by Mark Carney. 

For banks, then, the challenge is no longer simply to make climate commitments. It is to demonstrate consistency among the products they offer customers, the risks they incorporate into financing decisions, and the information actually available about their portfolios. 

Sources 

• Mark Carney, speech at Lloyd’s of London, September 29, 2015. 

• Dissolution of the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, AFP dispatch, October 3, 2025, including the response from the French Banking Federation. 

• U.S. banks’ withdrawals from the alliance, *Reuters* (December 2024) and the *Financial Times* (January 2025). 

• Pew Charitable Trusts and Thomson Reuters, on anti-ESG legislation in U.S. states. 

• SEC, announcement on ending the climate disclosure rule, March 2025. 

• HSBC, postponement of its operational net-zero target (February 2025) and revision of its fossil-fuel policy framework (November 2025). 

• Wells Fargo, withdrawal of its financed-emissions targets, March 2025. 

• French Banking Federation, annual study on financing the ecological transition, May 21, 2026. 

• Banking on Climate Chaos*, 2026 edition, published by eight NGOs including Reclaim Finance. 

• TNP Sustainable Finance Benchmark 2026. 

• French Ministry of the Economy, overview of the ISR label; AEF Info, mapping of labeled funds, February 2026. 

• ACPR, recommendation on the promotion of non-financial characteristics in life insurance. 

• AMF, findings from its supervisory reviews of sustainable finance practices, February 2026. 

• Directive (EU) 2026/470, known as “Omnibus I,” in force since March 18, 2026. 

• Directive (EU) 2024/825, known as “EmpCo,” applicable from September 27, 2026. 

• European Banking Authority, guidelines on ESG risks, applicable since January 2026. 

• Jean-Pierre Bouchez, “Finance: The Tragedy of the Horizon Highlights the Tension Between the Short and Long Term,” op-ed, *Le Monde*, May 15, 2026.