Can we bank on it? Aligning human capital and climate finance within the workplace

Purpose The banking sector is central to dealing with the climate crisis through its lending, underwriting and investment activities. But this centrality reveals a tension: committing to climate targets while continuing to finance fossil fuel expansion. This paper argues that such dissonance cannot be understood solely as a matter of external policy or market design; it is also an organizational and human resource challenge. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on insights from sustainable HRM literature, our paper advances a conceptual framework designed to address a way forward, positioning decision-making structures as essential moderators between institutional climate initiatives and the lived realities of the workforce. Findings We show that climate ambition, when not aligned with internal governance and performance systems, produces fragmented accountability, role ambiguity and employee disengagement. Drawing on insights from sustainable HRM literature, the paper presents a way forward, positioning decision-making structures as essential moderators between institutional climate initiatives and the lived realities of the workforce by highlighting three areas of intervention: regulatory evolution, internal alignment and cultural shift. Research limitations/implications By highlighting three areas of intervention: regulatory evolution, internal alignment and cultural shift, these interventions move climate responsibility in banks from a symbolic concern to an operational and cultural norm by embedding climate integrity into incentive systems, HR practices, and leader decision making. Practical implications The paper demonstrates that the banking sector's ability to positively impact the transition away from carbon emissions is not only contingent on the decisions that banks make in respect of the financial capital that they control, but also on factors such as their organizational structure, workforce design and cultural alignment. Social implications The banking sector has the analytical capability, the financial power and the global influence to lead climate transition. The challenge hinges on their willingness to confront the internal contradictions that have too often been ignored. By aligning how banks govern climate change through people, how they work and how they lead with what they value, the transition becomes not only possible but credible. Originality/value Global climate change represents a grand challenge for all organizations to collectively address. As gatekeepers of capital, banks sit at the heart of this test, financing both carbon-intensive economic activity and climate solutions. Recognizing this paradox, this provocation explores how these contradictions play out within banks, exploring how climate strategy is translated, distorted or deflected inside financial institutions, and how it maps directly onto the workforce.