How the ECB can help the Eurozone build back better

Jay OwenGreen Prosperity, Reforming Global Finance, Global Citizen, Latest Headlines

“Ethical Markets supports this Petition to the European Central Bank (ECB) to stop buying fossilized assets  on its balance sheet and shift these to all the cleaner, greener companies, bonds for all Q.E. purchases.  All countries suffering from this worldwide pandemic can ”BUILD BACK BETTER“ !

~Hazel Henderson, Editor”

As countries across Europe emerge from lockdown, thoughts are now turning to the longer-term economic recovery from Covid-19. The pledge to ‘build back better’ has been adopted by both non-profit organisations and European governments to envisage a new, green Eurozone economy. The building work starts now.

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde is among the key officials to give support to building back better. She has pledged that the ECB will “explore every avenue available in order to combat climate change”. This would lay a key foundation for a greener post-coronavirus Eurozone, which Positive Money Europe’s recommendations – written with the New Economics Foundation and 350.org – can help cement.

Lagarde’s words are promising, but the ECB must act now to make sure we really do build a green economy in the wake of Covid-19. Greenpeace and Greta Thunberg have recently joined our long-running calls for the bank to immediately stop purchasing bonds from environmentally destructive companies, or at the very least impose strict conditions on them to force companies to green their ways.

This action cannot wait. The ECB will continue to purchase huge amounts of corporate bonds in the next few months to maintain support for the Eurozone economy in the wake of Covid-19. This comes despite the fact that the ECB’s strategic review isn’t taking place until June 2021, which Positive Money Europe and other organisations will use to call for the ECB to become a bank for the planet rather than the polluters.

In the meantime, if the ECB continues to extend support to the world’s worst fossil fuel multinationals, Lagarde’s promising words would amount to nothing more than hot air.

 

Petition to the European Central Bank: Stop funding the climate crisis!

€1.1 trillion. That’s how much the European Central Bank will spend this year propping up the economy. If we don’t act now, massive amounts will go to coal, oil, gas and airline corporations.

To stop it, sign this petition.

 

In other news:

Job opening: Part-time Finance and Operations Manager

Yes, we are hiring again! This time we’re looking for a highly efficient, dedicated manager to oversee and manage all aspects of our finances, HR and operations. Closing date for applications is 08:00 CET on Monday 20 July. You can read the full job description here.

Please share with your friends and colleagues who you think might be interested!

 

Other great reads:

  • Read Dezernat Zukunft‘s 14 ideas for the economy after coronavirus – including bold suggestions for how to reform the ECB’s mandate
  • The ECB is simultaneously acknowledging climate urgency and refusing to act – says Paul Schreiber from Reclaim Finance in the Guardian
  • Pierre Monnin explains further why the ECB must transition to a sustainable post-Covid economy.
  • It’s a fiction that monetary and fiscal policy are separate. The European Central Bank’s mandate should be enlarged, reads an article by Benjamin Braun, Daniela Gabor and Benjamin Lemoine in Social Europe
  • Cancelling toxic household debt – Finance Watch sets out the case for a modern debt jubilee
  • The Greek bailout did not take social impact into consideration, Politico reports
  • “While a monetisation of the deficits induced by the Covid-19 crisis would eventually increase the price level, this is a price worth paying to avoid future sovereign debt crises in the euro area,” say Sebastian Diessner and Paul De Grauwe in VoxEU
  • Old but still relevant today: The ECB explains why central banks cannot run out of that which they create, in Bloomberg
  • Germany is paving the way for a green bond revolution in Europe by selling its first government-backed securities later this year, writes John Ainger in Bloomberg Green
  • This pandemic has exposed the uselessness of orthodox economics, writes Jonathan Aldred in the Guardian