Full Title: Unused Tools: How Central Banks Are Fueling the Climate Crisis
Author(s): David Tong, Simon Pirani
Publisher(s): Oil Change International, 350.org, Alliance Climatique Suisse, BankTrack, Campax, Center for International Environmental Law, The Democracy Collaborative, E3G, Earthworks, Environmental Defense, Fossil Free Schweiz, Friends of the Earth United States, Laudato Si’ Movement, Public Citizen, Positive Money, Rainforest Action Network, Reclaim Finance, Recourse, Shift, Stand.earth, The Sunrise Project, Urgewald, Women’s Earth & Climate Action Network
Publication Date: August 24, 2021
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
Central banks could play a critical role in catalyzing the rapid shift of financial flows away from oil, fossil gas, and coal. However, to date, central banks have instead tinkered at the edges.
With a few isolated exceptions – such as decisions by the French and Swiss central banks to partially exclude coal from their asset portfolios – central bank activity on carbon pollution and the climate crisis has been limited primarily to measures to increase financial market transparency.
While some central bank executives claim that tackling the climate crisis is beyond their mandates, at the same time they have positively reinforced fossil fuel financing, and even directly financed fossil fuel production.
This report identifies 10 criteria for assessing central banks against the Paris Agreement’s objective, and applies them to assess 12 major central banks.