On the eve of the Governing Council, we further increased the pressure on the bank to finally align its monetary policy with the Paris Climate Agreement by means of a widely visible projection on the facade of the ECB building.
As early as October, flaming protest in Frankfurt amplified voices in European society as well as from inside the ECB demanding the bank’s participation in the fight against the climate crisis – instead of continuing to fuel it.
While the images of our burning globe went around the world and triggered press coverage in France, Austria, the USA, leading German media (Süddeutsche, FAZ, Deutschlandfunk, Tageschau.de) and others, the discourse continues to gain momentum:
Christine Lagarde has recently made the Climate Crisis one of the central themes of her presidency and the current “strategic review”. That the ECB must act seems to be beyond question. What is disputed, however, is how far it will change its course.
There is general agreement that climate risks are insufficiently priced in. Even the Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann, who has so far regularly opposed effective measures against global heating, demands that only ratings that take climate risks into account be used.
Much more far-reaching proposals come from Isabel Schnabel, member of the Executive Board of the ECB, which brings clear and transparent exclusion criteria for bond purchases into play in order to achieve the EU’s decarbonization goals.
The governor of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey, also comes to the conclusion that a supposed “neutrality” can only exist in the sense of “climate neutrality”.
The governor of the Banque de France, Francois Villeroy de Galhau, also sees the ECB as responsible – although he is against the preferential treatment of green bond purchases, leaving open exactly what the measures should look like.
Despite this welcome debate, the fact is that the current monetary policy of the ECB is not compatible with the 1.5 degree target of the Paris Agreement and thus endangers the future of people in Europe and worldwide.
Our demand 🔥“Kill CO2VID, Not Our Climate”🔥 underlines the historic opportunity for the ECB to help solve two global crises simultaneously. By linking the corona aid packages to climate protection requirements, the ECB would have an effective means of combating both the corona pandemic and the climate crisis.
The ECB NOW has the responsibility to prevent humanitarian disasters, whether they are caused by corona or the climate crisis.
The ECB must therefore now make a decisive change in direction and must stop further fuelling the unchecked progress of the climate crisis.
We demand #ECBFossilfree!