Campaign group ShareAction is calling on institutional shareholders to vote against the re-election of bank chairs who water down their lenders' climate commitments this year. The move could lead to embarrassing shareholder revolts as bosses face accountability for environmental backtracking.
ShareAction will issue detailed reports to pension funds and asset managers in the coming weeks, analysing whether 34 of the world’s largest lenders are sticking to their climate goals. The UK’s largest banks—NatWest, Lloyds, and HSBC—will be among the first under scrutiny, with their annual reports due by the end of February. Barclays publishes its report on Tuesday.
Kelly Shields, ShareAction’s senior campaign manager, said the votes were unlikely to remove any director but would send a personal message. “These directors are getting nodded through with 98-99% of the vote. Even a small amount knocked off can send quite a strong signal,” she said. “That director hopefully feels responsible and emboldened to act.”
The campaign comes as banks face renewed pressure over green commitments since Donald Trump’s return to the White House. Trump’s anti-green agenda has emboldened climate deniers and fuelled a push for oil and gas production, putting pressure on banks to finance fossil fuels. It also led to defections from the UN-backed net zero banking alliance (NZBA), including by JP Morgan, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Barclays, and HSBC, culminating in the group’s demise in September.
HSBC last year delayed parts of its climate goals by 20 years and watered down environmental targets in a new bonus plan for its CEO. Shields hopes the campaign will “slow down this trend of backtracking” and send a signal that such moves come with consequences.
