Open letter to the European Central Bank’s Governing Council

An open letter from Reclaim Finance and other signatories calling on the European Central Bank (ECB) to specify and strengthen the criteria for 'tilting' its corporate bond holdings toward better climate performance. The authors propose four key requirements: excluding coal and new fossil fuel projects, prioritising climate neutrality over market neutrality, requiring science-based emission targets aligned with the EU Climate Law, and making climate-related disclosures mandatory for eligibility.

• The authors argue that a credible approach to greening corporate bond holdings must include the exclusion of assets from the coal sector and companies developing new fossil fuel exploration and production projects, removing them from both current portfolios and future eligibility.
• The ECB is urged to prioritise climate neutrality over market neutrality to correct the carbon bias in asset purchase programmes, which requires a measurable reduction in carbon footprints and a rapid change in sectoral weightings.
• The letter demands that eligible companies align their targets and performance with net zero emissions by 2050 and a 55% absolute reduction below 1990 levels by 2030, covering all emission scopes (1-3) and utilizing science-based plans.
• The authors call for immediate mandatory climate-related disclosures for corporate purchase programme eligibility, including Scopes 1-3 emissions and transition plans, eventually aligning with the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).
• To maximize the impact of these measures, the ECB should be transparent about ineligible issuers, apply these rules to asset sales ahead of maturity rather than just re-investments, and adopt a more inclusive consultation process involving civil society.

APA

Reclaim Finance (2022). Open letter to the European Central Bank’s Governing Council. https://reclaimfinance.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/ECB-open-letter-on-greening-corporate-QE.pdf

Chicago

Reclaim Finance. Open letter to the European Central Bank’s Governing Council. 2022. https://reclaimfinance.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/ECB-open-letter-on-greening-corporate-QE.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=Reclaim Finance |title=Open letter to the European Central Bank’s Governing Council |date=8 September 2022 |url=https://reclaimfinance.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/ECB-open-letter-on-greening-corporate-QE.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{reclaimfinance2022open, author = {{Reclaim Finance}}, title = {{Open letter to the European Central Bank’s Governing Council}}, publisher = {Reclaim Finance}, year = {2022}, month = sep, url = {https://reclaimfinance.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/ECB-open-letter-on-greening-corporate-QE.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }