Treasury Department says alliance conflicts with Trump admin’s ‘priorities to grow the U.S. economy’
The Treasury Department withdrew the United States from a global climate alliance that was launched to push the financial sector to adopt green mandates.
The so-called Network of Central Banks and Supervisors for Greening the Financial System was originally created to pressure banks and financial institutions to meet sweeping global climate targets, many of which have been set during United Nations summits. The Treasury Department said late Thursday that the alliance’s mission doesn’t align with the Trump administration’s “priorities to grow the U.S. economy and American jobs.”
The announcement is part of the Trump administration’s move to exit what it considers to be harmful global climate agreements. And it is the latest signal to the international community that the United States under Trump’s leadership will seek to prioritize domestic energy production over commitments to bolster green energy and fight global warming.
Will Hild, the executive director of Consumers’ Research, told the Washington Free Beacon that the withdrawal is a “major victory for consumers” and that the alliance “only existed to push a radical climate agenda onto taxpayers.”
The alliance’s efforts, according to a review of its website and governing documents, fall in line with the broader green investing movement, which pushes financial institutions to divest from fossil fuel production and infrastructure and invest in green energy to stop climate change. “Climate change is one of the most pressing global challenges of our time, with impacts that are felt worldwide and necessitate urgent, coordinated action,” the group states.
The group is also one of the most high profile alliances of its kind worldwide—the alliance boasts 144 members across more than 90 countries, including the European Central Bank and Bank of England. The Biden administration had joined the alliance in February 2022.
On his first day in office, President Donald Trump issued an executive action ordering the State Department to withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Accords.
“President Trump is committed to pursuing an American First policy agenda,” the State Department said in a subsequent internal memo confirming it had executed Trump’s order. “The Paris Agreement prompted restrictions on America’s ability to harvest vast natural resources and constraints on the American economy through oppressive domestic regulations.”
And the withdrawal comes two weeks after the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative—a private sector alliance whose mission largely mimicked that of the Network of Central Banks and Supervisors for Greening the Financial System—said it would suspend all operations. That decision was triggered after a number of the group’s members, including trillion-dollar asset manager BlackRock, withdrew ahead of Trump’s inauguration.
“For too long ESG elites like BlackRock’s CEO Larry Fink have been using political influence to manipulate federal agencies into pushing ESG on consumers and stunting the American economy,” Hild, of Consumers’ Research, told the Free Beacon.
“But thanks to President Trump’s swift actions, the administration continues to remove the rot that is ESG from American institutions,” he continued. “There is still more work to be done, and Consumers’ Research remains committed to holding institutions accountable if they continue their senseless devotion to destructive ideological fads like ESG at the expense of taxpayers and consumers.”
This article was originally published at freebeacon.com
