Greenpeace activists landed on a paraglider on the ECB skyscraper in Frankfurt. This morning as the European Central Bank board meeting was taking place in Frankfurt, we jumped into action by landing a paraglider on the bank’s roof. We did it to protest against the monetary policy of the European institution, which is harmful to the planet’s climate. Despite the warnings of science about the risks of climate change and the increasingly recurring announcements of green reforms in the words of politicians, banks and insurance companies intend to continue to support the oil, gas and coal industries … this literally means throwing gasoline on focus of the climate crisis.
According to Greenpeace, the European Central Bank holds a significant amount of carbon-intensive securities, and in fact shows to favor the fossil fuel sector: gas, oil and coal.
President Christine Lagarde on 23 January announced a review of the ECB’s policy strategy to consider climate issues. The issue of climate change also poses a threat to financial stability and the issue of the environment will find space in the review of the strategy we will carry out, he said. The institution has launched the review process that will first of all touch upon the key issues of monetary policy: definition of price stability, including quantitative on inflation, monetary policy tools, economic and monetary analysis and communication. And in addition to the environment, financial stability and employment will also be considered.
The economy – reads the European Union website – can suffer the effects of extreme weather events and uncertainties related to the transition to a low-carbon economy. The ECB intervenes in four areas of competence. It ensures that climate change is taken into account in macroeconomic models, forecasting methods and risk assessments. Supervision strives to make banks aware of the risks deriving from climate change. As part of the ECB’s asset purchase programs, we have invested in green bonds, also taking into account the need to avoid market distortions. Finally, financial stability experts measure and evaluate the risks that climate change poses to the financial system. The results of their work are communicated to the public, market participants and policy makers.
For its part, at the end of 2019 the EIB announced that from 2022 it will no longer finance the fossil industry. Under the new strategy, future energy projects will have to demonstrate that they emit less than 250g CO2 / kWh to apply for a loan from the European Investment Bank. But according to the NGO Counter Balance, in the year of the announcement – 2019 – the EIB granted 890 billion in loans to the gas industry.
