ECB’s Stournaras urges focus on climate change’s economic impact

The ECB will be able to monitor how lenders plan to transition to a net-zero carbon economy over the next three decades. (Image courtesy: Bloomberg)

The European Central Bank will use new powers to try to reduce carbon emissions by entities issuing assets, ECB Governing Council Member Yannis Stournaras wrote in Kathimerini, adding that the impacts of climate change will affect inflation and growth.

The ECB “is exploring setting limits on the share of assets issued by entities with a high carbon footprint that banks can pledge as collateral for monetary policy actions,” Stournaras, who heads the Bank of Greece, wrote in the opinion piece for the Greek newspaper.

The central bank is also expected to introduce climate change data disclosure as a new eligibility criterion for collateral in monetary policy operations, he added.

The European Union last week gave more powers to the continent’s banking watchdog, expanding its remit to include risks linked to climate change and the rise of digital assets.

The ECB will be able to monitor how lenders plan to transition to a net-zero carbon economy over the next three decades. The reform also puts it in charge of supervising bank-owned providers of crypto asset services.

“We all have role to play in fighting climate change,” Stournaras said.