Morgan Stanley is committing to reach net-zero financed emissions by 2050. The company has acknowledged that the current lack of standardised tools and methodologies around measuring and disclosing financed emissions is still a major issue but will attempt to work with clients toward net-zero.

Asa result, Morgan Stanley is also committing to taking a leadership role in developing these tools and methodologies having recently joined the Steering Committee of the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF).

“Climate change is one of the most complex and interconnected issues of our time,” said Audrey Choi, chief sustainability officer at Morgan Stanley. “Morgan Stanley believes we have an important role to play in facilitating the transition to a low carbon future, and we are proud to embark on this journey.”

“Morgan Stanley has just become the first major US bank to commit to net-zero emissions. We recognise the bank’s leadership on this and on agreeing to measure and disclose its climate footprint with the PCAF methodology. We look forward to Morgan Stanley quickly putting meat on this bare-bones commitment by using the Principles for Paris-Aligned Financial Institutions, and in particular by setting an interim target to halve its emissions by 2030,” said Rainforest Action Network climate and energy director Paddy McCully.

The announcement does not currently include details on the bank’s plan to get there, a point made by BankTrack, with the organisation also drawing attention to its 2020 Banking on Climate Change report showing that Morgan Stanley is still one of the top dozen fossil fuel financing banks in the world, financing nearly $11bn in fossil fuel expansion in 2019 alone.

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