(Finance) – The European Central Bank must integrate climate considerations into the econometric models it uses for its monetary policy, since “the climate change is having a clear impact, especially on inflation“He affirmed it Christine LagardePresident of the European Central Bank (ECB), stressing that “if more and more climate disasters, droughts and famines occur in the world, there will be repercussions on prices, insurance premiums and the financial sector. We must take this into account”.
Lagarde recalled that since she became the number one of the Frankfurt institution three years ago, she has wanted to deal not only with monetary policy, but also with issues such as climate change and women’s rights. This was not easy, she admitted, but “thanks to the intelligence and goodwill of the members of the ECB Executive Board and the governors, and after a good dose of persuasionwe have integrated the necessary fight against climate change into the foundations of our strategy “.
The ECB is committed to making its portfolio of assets “greener”. In practice, Lagarde explained, this means that, in the future, “when we lend money to future debtors, we will ask them to pledge more guarantees for brown assets than for green assets if the former constitute a greater risk “.
The president of the ECB said she was aware of the difficulties of defining a green investment. “The problem is that there are dozens of them (of rating systems, ed) and they vary from country to country. Some are organized by line of business, others by geographic area. I can imagine that these environmental, social and governance standards will be harmonized and strengthened rather quickly. “
When asked whether this will be enough to avoid greenwashing, she replied: “There the supervisory arm of the ECB will intervene: we are already carrying out the stress tests but later we will have to get serious. The goodwill and determination of the US Securities and Exchange Commission and Emmanuel Faber at the helm of the International Sustainability Standards Board for the harmonization of “green standards” will allow us to do some cleaning up of greenwashing. We will move towards elimination. ”