ECB’s climate disclosures: much ado about nothing

The European Central Bank's (ECB) March 2023 climate disclosures reveal that its corporate asset portfolios have not decarbonized at a pace matching European climate goals, with total carbon emissions increasing by approximately 88% between 2018 and 2022. The report argues that the ECB's 'climate tilting' framework is insufficient because it only applies to reinvestments rather than the existing stock of assets and fails to exclude fossil fuel developers. To align with its 2021 climate roadmap, the author recommends that the ECB extend its climate approach to the stock of corporate bonds and exclude companies inconsistent with the 1.5°C objective.

• The ECB's corporate asset portfolios have seen a significant increase in absolute carbon emissions, with a rise of approximately 88% between 2018 and 2022, driven by the increase in the corporate sector purchase programme (CSPP) and the introduction of the Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme (PEPP) in 2019.
• Improvements in carbon efficiency metrics have been minimal and are attributed to companies improving their own practices rather than active ECB policy; the decrease in Weighted Average Carbon Intensity (WACI) nearly stalled between 2021 and 2022 with only a 2% decrease.
• The ECB's disclosures are criticized for omitting critical data on sectoral evolution and the inclusion of carbon-intensive issuers, despite the PEPP increasing support for all five oil and gas majors between April 2020 and September 2021.
• The current 'climate tilting' framework, started in October 2022, is deemed inadequate because it only affects reinvestments and does not address the large stock of existing holdings or exclude fossil fuel developers.

APA

Martin, L. (2023). ECB’s climate disclosures: much ado about nothing. Reclaim Finance. https://reclaimfinance.org/site/en/2023/04/07/ecbs-climate-disclosures-much-ado-about-nothing/

Chicago

Martin, Léo. ECB’s climate disclosures: much ado about nothing. Reclaim Finance, 2023. https://reclaimfinance.org/site/en/2023/04/07/ecbs-climate-disclosures-much-ado-about-nothing/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Martin |first1=Léo |title=ECB’s climate disclosures: much ado about nothing |publisher=Reclaim Finance |date=7 April 2023 |url=https://reclaimfinance.org/site/en/2023/04/07/ecbs-climate-disclosures-much-ado-about-nothing/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{martin2023ecbs, author = {Martin, Léo}, title = {{ECB’s climate disclosures: much ado about nothing}}, publisher = {Reclaim Finance}, year = {2023}, month = apr, url = {https://reclaimfinance.org/site/en/2023/04/07/ecbs-climate-disclosures-much-ado-about-nothing/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }