The Net Zero Asset Managers (NZAM) initiative, a major multi-trillion dollar group of investment managers committed to supporting the goal of net zero greenhouse gas emissions, announced that it will resume operations after pausing in early 2025 to adapt to a rapidly changing political and regulatory environment which had caused some of its largest signatories to exit the coalition.
While the climate-focused investor group announced its return, it also revealed a series of changes to its commitment requirements for signatories, including removing references to investing in line with the goal of reaching net zero by 2050.
NZAM was launched in December 2020 with a group of 30 asset managers representing approximately $9 trillion of assets under management (AUM), and by early 2025 included more than 325 signatories and over $57 trillion in AUM, agreeing to a series of commitments aimed at supporting the goal of net zero GHG emissions by 2050. Commitments included working with asset owner clients on decarbonization goals, setting and reviewing interim targets for a proportion of assets to be managed in line with net zero by 2050, tracking portfolio emissions, prioritizing the achievement of emissions reductions in the sectors and companies in which they invest, and implementing a stewardship and engagement strategy – including a voting policy – consistent with a net zero by 2050 portfolio goal, among others.
In recent years, however, financial services participants in climate-focused groups such as NZAM and its sister coalition, the Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA), began facing growing pressure from a vocal anti-ESG movement by Republican politicians in the U.S. – which increased significantly following the election of Donald Trump as President – with claims that participation in the climate initiatives amounted to “boycotting energy companies,” or various forms of collusive or anti-competitive behaviors, or that they were not in the best fiduciary interests of clients. The NZBA recently announced that it will cease operations after the departure of several high-profile banks.
After facing growing scrutiny, BlackRock announced in January 2025 that had decided to leave NZAM, explaining to clients that its membership in the group “caused confusion regarding BlackRock’s practices and subjected us to legal inquiries from various public officials.”
Shortly after the BlackRock exit, NZAM announced that it will suspend its primary activities and that it will remove its commitment statement and list of signatories from its website, launching a review of the initiative, citing “recent developments in the U.S. and different regulatory and client expectations in investors’ respective jurisdictions.”
In its new update, NZAM said that it has shared an updated Commitment Statement with its signatories, which it said has removed references to 2050 “to reflect diverse jurisdictional realities and accommodate signatories from a wider range of markets,” adding that “signatories will continue to set individual targets, implement their own stewardship strategies, and report annually on their progress.”
In its statement, NZAM highlighted the significant risks and opportunities resulting from climate change and the climate transition for investors, with transition-related opportunities set to grow to as high as $60 trillion by 2050, while companies face nearly $25 trillion in financial impacts from climate-related hazards.
NZAM said:
“NZAM signatories recognise their fiduciary duties to consider how financial risks and opportunities presented by climate change may impact investment outcomes… Being a signatory to NZAM helps asset managers demonstrate how they are positioning for and seizing these opportunities, while managing climate-related financial risks on behalf of their clients.”
NZAM said that it will resume its target and implementation support activities and re-list its signatories on its website in January 2026.
