UBS revealed in its 2024 Sustainability Report that it has pushed back its target to achieve net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in its operations by 10 years to 2035, from its prior 2025 goal, attributing the change largely due to the effect of the bank’s acquisition of Credit Suisse.

The bank also withdrew a target for its Asset Management division to align 20% of its assets under management (AUM) with net zero by 2030, saying that it is reviewing the goal due to the integration of Credit Suisse.

The announcement by UBS marks the latest in a series of moves by banks globally to withdraw or pull back on climate commitments, although UBS’ changes appear less drastic than those by some of its peers. HSBC, for example, recently pushed back its own target to achieve net zero emissions in its operations and supply chain by 20 years to 2050, and placed its interim financed emissions targets under review, all major U.S., Canadian and some other banks have left the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, and Wells Fargo entirely dropped its target to achieve net zero financed emissions by 2050, and its sector-specific 2030 interim financed emissions targets.

UBS remains a member of the NZBA, and in its report, the bank confirmed that it remains committed to its financed emissions decarbonization targets. UBS has 2030 financed emissions goals in place for the Swiss residential and commercial real estate, power generation, iron and steel, cement, and fossil fuel sectors.

The report, however, changed language on UBS’ key climate commitments from its 2023 report, in which the bank said that “by 2050, our ambition is to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions across our scope 1 and 2, and specified scope 3 activities,” updating it with “by 2050, the global economy aims to transition to net zero. For example, across our own operations (scopes 1 and 2), UBS plans to achieve net zero by 2035, well ahead of 2050,” and outlining its Scope 3 goal as “addressing our financed emissions by aligning specified sectors to decarbonization pathways.”

UBS attributed the change in its operational net zero goal to its “enlarged corporate real estate portfolio following the acquisition of the Credit Suisse Group,” as well as to “the latest definition of a “net-zero target” in the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).”

Alongside the updated net zero target, UBS also set out a new interim goal to reduce Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 57% by 2030, on a 2023 baseline, as well as a commitment to source 100% of electricity from renewable-source-qualifying generation by 2026. For the 2035 net zero target, UBS said that it aims to reduce emissions by at least 90% before neutralizing any residual emissions through the purchase of carbon removal credits, while the interim 2030 goal does not include the use of any carbon removal credits.

In its Asset Management business, UBS said that it withdrew its 2030 target as it is “reviewing the legacy target set prior to the acquisition of the Credit Suisse Group, taking into account all of the AuM of the combined businesses.” In the report, UBS said that its assets under management with a net zero ambition reached $64.4 billion, or 3.6% of AUM (including Credit Suisse AUM), up from $35.5 billion and 2.9% of AUM in 2023 (excluding Credit Suisse AUM).