Climate change and the ECB
Climate change can affect price stability. Therefore, we will do our part within our mandate to tackle it.
Climate change can affect price stability through extreme weather events and uncertainties related to the transition to a low-carbon economy.
We at the ECB are committed to taking the impact of climate change into consideration in our monetary policy framework.
While governments and parliaments have the primary responsibility to act on climate change, we will do our part within our mandate.
Our action plan to tackle climate change
As a result of our recent strategy review, we have decided on an action plan with an ambitious roadmap to incorporate climate change considerations into our policy frameworks in various ways.
Press releaseWhat are the milestones on our climate roadmap?
Our action plan lays out an ambitious roadmap to take the effects of climate change into account. On this path, we will pass three major milestones that guide our commitment to tackle climate change and do our part.
Find out moreLOOKING FOR THE LATEST ON CLIMATE CHANGE?
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Climate change centre
Our climate change centre shapes and steers the ECB’s climate agenda and brings together our work on climate change and sustainable finance. It also coordinates all activities that are part of our climate roadmap.
Press releaseFocus on
While our roadmap sets out where we want to go, we’ve already started working on climate change in four main areas
Economic analysis
ECB staff ensure that climate change is taken into account in the ECB’s macroeconomic models, forecasting methods, and risk assessments.
MoreBanking supervision
Supervisors engage with banks to monitor action on risks emerging from climate change. The aim is to ensure that banks are able to detect and manage these risks properly.
MoreMonetary policy and investment portfolios
As part of the ECB’s asset purchase programmes we have invested in green bonds, taking into account the need to avoid market distortions.
MoreFinancial stability
Financial stability experts measure and assess the risks posed to the financial system by climate change. Their findings are communicated to the public, to market participants and to policy makers.
MoreWhat are the results of our first economy-wide climate stress test? What do they mean for people, companies and banks? In this episode of The ECB Podcast, our host Katie Ranger discusses these questions with Vice-President Luis de Guindos and Irene Heemskerk, the head of our climate change centre.
MoreThe ECB works together on climate change with other institutions
The Eurosystem’s response to the European Commission’s Renewed Sustainable Finance Strategy
The ECB and the national central banks of the countries that have adopted the euro stand ready to support the European Commission’s work to develop a sustainable finance strategy and improve the disclosure of non-financial information. We have identified five key priorities in response to the Commission’s public consultations.
Read our responseThe Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS)
The ECB is a member of the NGFS: a group of central banks and financial supervisors from five continents who look for ways to support a smooth transition towards a low-carbon economy. In 2020 the ECB joined the network’s executive body, the Steering Committee.
Visit the NGFS website