21. October 2020

Blazing protest against the ECB’s monetary policy.

Every day, the European Central Bank (ECB) fuels the climate crisis by channelling billions to greenhouse gas-intensive industries. In the early morning hours of 21.10.2020, this could be figuratively seen in Frankfurt.

The burning earth is a signal to the ECB: we will no longer accept that you continue to destroy the foundations of life!

Our action took place on the same day as an event with ECB President Christine Lagarde and Chief Economist Philip R. Lane, at which civil society organisations were invited for a virtual exchange of views. This event was part of the “ECB Listens” process, in which the Central Bank invited citizens to express their views on their monetary policy strategy.

However, we from the Koala Kollektiv did not want to submit our opinion only in writing to the participation portal. Because the situation is serious. There is already an increasing number of droughts, storms and floods worldwide. Dangerous tipping points, which would lead to an acceleration of the climate crisis, could already be exceeded in the coming years.

President Christine Lagarde regularly affirms that she stands for climate protection. But so far her lip service has not been followed by action.

We call on the ECB to act NOW to prevent further humanitarian disasters resulting from climate change.

We are not alone in this: 150,000 people have signed a petition by 350.org, SumOfUs and ReclaimFinance calling on the ECB to stop giving money to climate-damaging companies.

ECB, listen to us! Respect the Paris Agreement!

You want to know more? On our ECB page you will find background information about the dirty business of the Central Bank, an impressive video and our demands in detail.

UPDATE: Our action gained a wide reach in the news media. Among reporting news outlets are Deutschlandfunk, Tagesschau.de, Hessenschau.de, Bloomberg, daily newspapers Frankfurter Rundschau, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Reuters, dpa as well as the French daily Le Monde.