Dive Brief:
- The United Nations-backed Net Zero Asset Managers initiative relaunched Wednesday with over 250 signatories, but fewer members headquartered in the United States, according to a press release and an updated signatory list released by the group.
- NZAM also unveiled its new commitment statement during the relaunch, which removed references to reaching net-zero in 2050. The group said in the release that its new commitments were “relevant, practical, and globally inclusive.”
- NZAM, launched in 2020, paused all of its operations in January 2025, shortly after BlackRock left the group. BlackRock’s departure came as U.S. financial institutions sought to leave climate alliances in the leadup to and aftermath of President Donald Trump’s inauguration. The group announced its planned relaunch in October.
Dive Insight:
U.S. asset managers did not flock to rejoin NZAM following the review process. Baltimore-headquartered T. Rowe Price, Chicago-headquartered Great Lakes Advisors, impact investment firm Conservation Resources, venture capital firm Clean Energy Ventures Management and certified B Corporation Vert Asset Management are among the U.S.-based asset managers listed among the group’s signatories.
Prior targets from signatories remain in effect, unless the members ask to review those targets. NZAM will work with companies that are in the process of developing targets to ensure those goals are set and disclosed over the next year.
“As an asset manager, we recognise our fiduciary duties to consider how the financial risks and opportunities presented by climate change may impact client investment outcomes,” the updated commitment statement says. “In addition, we recognise that as asset managers we are able to support our clients through, for example, the development of investment products, the provision of data and information, and education and capacity-building on the financial implications of climate change.”
Under its prior formation, NZAM members had come under fire from Republican lawmakers in the U.S. for alleged antitrust violations. The updated commitment statement reflects some of those critiques.
“In making this commitment, we recognise that the extent to which we can implement these actions depends on our clients and their approaches to climate change, on the enabling environment, in particular the policies and regulations adopted by governments and other public actors relating to climate change, and on the actions taken by companies and other actors,” the statement says.
In removing references to 2050 goals, the updated commitment statement retains a recognition of “the importance of holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and of continuing to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.”
Switzerland-based UBS Asset Management is the largest wealth manager signed onto the group, by assets under management. Fidelity International, which serves non-U.S. clients, and State Street’s European entities are signatories to the relaunched group. Other well-known signatories include Allianz Global Investors, BNP Paribas, Brookfield Asset Management and Mirova.
Impax Asset Management, a London-based asset manager, remains a signatory to the group. The firm’s sustainable investment research and strategy lead, Shahbano Soomro, told ESG Dive that the firm is standing by and working to implement the targets it submitted to NZAM in 2022.
“NZAM’s statement highlights the financial materiality of climate-related risks as the rationale for investor action, referencing asset managers’ fiduciary duties to consider the impacts of climate change on client investment outcomes, in line with Impax’s own investment philosophy,” Soomro said in emailed comments. “NZAM has also increased its focus on implementation, a shift we see across the sustainable finance industry, by requiring all signatories to ‘publicly disclose a plan for implementing these commitments.’”
The director of environmental nonprofit Sierra Club’s sustainable finance campaign, Ben Cushing, said in a statement Wednesday that the relaunch “is an important signal that many firms are not abandoning basic climate commitments, but membership is not the same as action.” He added that the “real test” will come down to how asset managers manage their capital and client mandates to deal with systemic risks.
“If NZAM becomes a softer framework that firms can cite without changing financing or stewardship practices, it will be largely symbolic,” Cushing said. “Asset owners should treat NZAM participation as a floor, not a ceiling, and hold managers accountable when commitments are not matched by measurable results.”
