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The European Central Bank is facing pressure from civil society to act on climate change. The pressure intensifies since the new President of #ECB, Christine #Lagarde, called for a review of the ECB's monetary policy strategy, which might address the issue https://www.ft.com/content/61ef385a-1129-11ea-a225-db2f231cfeae
2/n An open letter was sent today to @Lagarde by 164 academics & civil society representatives (NGOs, trade unions and experts). The letter urges Lagarde and the #ECB to take concrete and immediate action to fight #climatechange https://www.veblen-institute.org/Open-Letter-to-Christine-Lagarde.html
3/n The letter notably argues for using monetary policy in order to accelerate the transition towards a carbon-neutral economy, by gradually eliminating carbon-intensive assets from the #ECB's portfolios and immediatly disinvest from coal-related assets https://www.positivemoney.eu/2019/11/open-letter-lagarde-ecb-act-climate-crisis/
4/n It also suggests a redesign of the Quantitative Easing ( #QE) for favouring investments contributing to the green transition. Such redirection of the central bank’s action towards climate change would face a harsh opposition within the Governing Council https://www.ft.com/content/60d9832c-fa3f-11e9-a354-36acbbb0d9b6
5/n Members of Governing Council (including #Bundesbank's President Jens #Weidmann) consider that such measures contradict the principle of market neutrality enshrined in the Treaties & that tackling climate change is the responsability of democratically legitimised institutions
6/n However, the concrete implications of the principle of market neutrality (especially regarding corporate bonds purchase #CSPP) are criticized for its undesirable democratic, social and environmental consequences (cf article by @clemfon & @jvtklooster) https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13563467.2019.1657077
7/n In this definitional struggle, civil society's mobilisation for #ECB action on climate change is building on #Lagarde's pledge (at her EP hearing last September) to put the protection of the environment at the core of the understanding of ECB's mission https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/04/business/climate-change-ecb-lagarde.html
8/n Today's move (the open letter) was widely covered by #Medias from various #Eurozone countries (cf in @LesEchos) & thus succeeds in placing the climatic issue on the #ECB agenda ahead of #Lagarde's hearing in front of the #ECON committee, next Monday https://www.lesechos.fr/idees-debats/cercle/opinion-la-bce-doit-agir-sans-tarder-contre-le-changement-climatique-1151418
9/n Now let's wait for the reactions of the various players :
- Lagarde
- the 5 other members of the Executive Board
- the 19 governors of the national central banks composing the #Eurosystem
- the MEPs from #ECON strongly involved in monetary issues https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-11-28/ecb-under-pressure-to-ditch-climate-polluters-from-balance-sheet
- Lagarde
- the 5 other members of the Executive Board
- the 19 governors of the national central banks composing the #Eurosystem
- the MEPs from #ECON strongly involved in monetary issues https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-11-28/ecb-under-pressure-to-ditch-climate-polluters-from-balance-sheet
