Climate-focused investment management coalition the Net Zero Asset Managers (NZAM) initiative announced its official relaunch on Wednesday, with more than 250 asset management signatories, including some of the largest global investment firms – but with some notable absences as well.
The NZAM coalition relaunch includes the release of a new signatory commitment, which appears to carefully navigate the initiative’s alignment with global net zero goals while avoiding issues that drew political and regulatory scrutiny, primarily from anti-ESG politicians in the U.S., which caused the departure of some of its key members, and drove a one-year pause in the initiative to adapt to the changing political environment.
Among the key changes, the new commitment no longer includes references to investing in line with the goal of reaching net zero by 2050. In a statement announcing the relaunch, NZAM said that the initiative “provides asset managers with a platform to publicly disclose their individual net zero commitments and implementation approaches,” noting that “signatories independently set targets,” and “develop their own strategies.”
NZAM was initially 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.
Over the past few years, however, financial services participants in climate-focused groups such as NZAM 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.
A high-profile multistate lawsuit launched in late 2024 by several U.S. state Attorneys General, for example, accused asset managers BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street of violating antitrust laws and conspiring to use sustainable investment initiatives to manipulate coal markets, citing their participation in groups such as NZAM.
BlackRock announced its exit from NZAM in early 2025, noting that its participation in the group “subjected us to legal inquiries from various public officials.” Shortly after BlackRock’s departure, NZAM announced the suspension of its primary activities and the removal of 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 updated commitment statement, NZAM noted that asset manager signatories recognize their “fiduciary duties to consider how the financial risks and opportunities presented by climate change may impact client investment outcomes,” as well as 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, in line with the stated goals of the Paris Agreement,” adding:
“In this context, we commit to support investing aligned with the global goal of net zero greenhouse gas emissions as outlined below.”
While avoiding the 2050 net zero reference, the new statement includes a commitment by asset manager signatories to “set near-term climate targets consistent with the global goal of net zero greenhouse gas emissions,” as well as to “implement an investment stewardship strategy to support investees to address material climate risks and opportunities.”
Key additional actions outlined in the new commitment statement include pledges by signatories to provide clients with information to help them understand and act on climate-related financial risks and opportunities; support clients in their climate goals such as increased investment in climate solutions, transition finance and climate-resilient investments; engage with investment system actors such as data and index providers, ratings agencies, stock exchanges, and investment consultants to encourage the availability of products that reflect climate-related risks and opportunities; ensure that policy advocacy does not undermine the commitments, and; publicly disclose a plan for implementing the commitments, and to report annually on actions taken and outcomes achieved.
Commenting on the updated commitment, Dan Grandage, Chief Sustainable Investment Officer at Aberdeen Investments said that “the new statement reflects the evolution of climate investing from an original focus on decarbonising portfolios, towards a broader set of approaches that includes decarbonisation alongside, transition investing, climate solutions, adaptation and resilience.”
The updated list of signatories includes some of the world’s largest asset managers, such as UBS Asset Management, Amundi, and BNP Paribas Asset Management. Many large U.S. firms remain absent from the list, however, including BlackRock, Vanguard, JPMorgan Asset Management, Invesco and Goldman Sachs Asset Management. Notably, State Street’s Europe business remains on the signatory list, as announced by the asset manager in November. Similarly, T.Rowe Price and Wellington Management kept their European businesses within the initiative.
Rebecca Mikula-Wright, NZAM Steering Committee Chair, said:
“Since its inception, NZAM has helped improve market transparency and increase alignment between asset managers and their clients’ expectations. The strong participation in today’s relaunch reflects the value NZAM signatories find in having a credible platform to demonstrate to their clients how they are addressing climate-related financial risks and capturing transition opportunities.”
