The top agriculture officials from a dozen Republican-led states sounded an alarm Monday that the climate policies of America’s largest banks are jeopardizing U.S. food supply.
The officials demanded information from six major banks — Wells Fargo, JPMorgan, Citigroup, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs — about whether their membership in the U.N.-backed Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) that prioritizes combating climate change threatened to dry up financing for agriculture.
Banks’ memberships in the alliance, whose objective is to force institutions to reduce the carbon footprints of their lending and investments, is part of the climate-conscious financial practice known as ESG, an acronym for making environmental, social and governance the priority in investing.
“Achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture requires a complete overhaul of on-farm infrastructure — one of the goals of the NZBA,” the state officials wrote in a joint letter to the banks. “This would have a catastrophic impact on our farmers.”
Their primary fear was that if banks tried to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in their agriculture portfolios by mid-century, it would endanger food availability and cause price increases, and restrict credit access for farmers and ag products.
“Implementing these commitments would have severe consequences for American farmers — including cutting America’s beef and livestock consumption in half, switching to inefficient electric farm equipment and moving away from the nitrogen fertilizer necessary for American agriculture to thrive,” the ag officials said.
JPMorgan, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup declined to comment. Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley did not respond to requests for comment.
JPMorgan does not have emissions reduction targets to combat climate change as it relates to agriculture as it does for other industries, such as fossil fuels.
The letter was “sending a clear signal” from the agriculture sector, Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper said.
“We will not bend the knee to the failed, left-wing climate agenda of the United Nations that seeks to cripple one of our country’s most critical industries,” Mr. Harper said in a statement.
The other state agriculture officials were from Alabama, Florida, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Dakota, South Carolina, Texas and West Virginia.
They sought answers to several questions by Feb. 16, including if and how the banks plan to achieve net-zero emissions in their agriculture lending portfolio; if and how emissions or other decarbonization-related risk criteria are considered in lending decisions; their involvement in the NZBA; and whether they have agriculture climate targets.
The alliance launched in 2021 and exerts wide influence over the finance world. Its membership consists of 142 member banks from 44 countries with $74 trillion in total assets. NZBA has been the target of fierce opposition from elected Republican officials for what they say is going “woke” for climate change.
Investment giant Vanguard quit the alliance in 2022, saying that their membership created “confusion” among investors.
• Ramsey Touchberry can be reached at rtouchberry@washingtontimes.com.
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