A new study traces how climate change became a topic in Europe’s monetary policy. Utilising a novel and extensive dataset, it shows how the European Parliament, early on, called for a greener monetary policy and eventually allied with members of the ECB to forge a consensus on monetary policy and climate change. The study was financially supported by Positive Money Europe and authored by Dr. Elsa Massoc, a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for the Advanced Studies of Law and Finance.

In 2021, the ECB embraced a major shift in thinking by adopting a roadmap on climate change. However, given the urgency of the environmental breakdown and the current energy costs crisis, progress remains too slow. Together with 16 partner NGOs, we offer the ECB recommendations on how to best implement the ECB’s climate strategy.

New research by Positive Money Europe and WWF proposes expanding the role of Eurosystem’s own internal credit assessment systems, the so-called ICASs, to integrate climate and environmental risks. We see the increasing role and potential of C&E risk integration into ICASs as a concrete, workable and impactful way to green the collateral framework.

With the results of the ECB strategy review now published, the commitment of the ECB to tackle climate change is officially on paper. While it is a step in the right direction, disclosures, as largely planned by the ECB, in themselves do not constitute significant actions towards tackling climate change. Combined with the slow speed of implementation, we doubt the ambition of the climate roadmap.