Open letter: Four years on, the ECB needs an updated climate and nature approach
Posted on January, 28 2025
WWF, along with 60 other signatories, sent an open letter to the members of the European Central Bank Governing Council, urging them to present a new and improved Climate Roadmap as part of the monetary policy strategy assessment to be concluded in 2025.
It's been four years since the European Central Bank (ECB) adopted its Climate Roadmap, and times have changed, bringing a new set of opportunities and challenges along the way. Central banks’ understanding of the link between climate change and monetary policy has improved, various climate stress tests have been carried out, and deadlines have been set for banks to meet climate-related risk expectations. European central banks have also recognised the need to extend the initial focus on climate to a more holistic approach also encompassing nature degradation and biodiversity loss.At the same time, high inflation, caused by Europe’s dependency on fossil gas, transformed the economic context and monetary policy operations. Asset purchases, once abundant, are now being phased out, effectively ending the climate tilting policy introduced in the Roadmap.
The signatories urge the ECB Governing Council, to put forward a new and improved Climate Roadmap as part of the monetary policy strategy assessment to be concluded in 2025. Concrete measures that should be introduced include updating the collateral framework, tilting the stock of securities in the asset portfolios, and introducing green lending facilities (as explained in the Manifesto Stability Through Sustainability: three
recommendations for the ECB’s 2025 Monetary Policy Strategy Review).
Read the full letter here.
Read the Manifesto "Stability Through Sustainability: three recommendations for the ECB’s 2025 Monetary Policy Strategy Review" here.