The European Central Bank will reshuffle the cards of its corporate debt portfolio by favoring non-polluting issuers, it announced Thursday on the sidelines of its decisions to raise rates in the face of inflation.
From March, the ECB intends to reduce, at the rate of 15 billion euros on average per month, the size of its balance sheet full of private and public debt accumulated during the years when the institution massively supported the economy.
In line with the tightening of its monetary policy, it will reduce this portfolio, counting on reinvesting only part of the bonds that come to chance.
While it holds a stock of approximately 350 billion euros of corporate bonds, in all sectors, including certain pollutants such as energy, the monetary institute has decided to direct its purchases more towards issuers. (of titles, editor’s note) showing better climate performance during the partial reinvestment period, according to a press release.
This approach will support the gradual decarbonisation of corporate bond portfolios within the central banks of the euro zone, in accordance with the objectives of the Paris Climate Agreement concluded in 2015 and which aims to limit global warming 1.5 .
This policy should not prevent the ECB from aiming for price stability, the primary objective it intends to achieve by raising interest rates.
Faced with the risk of promoting co-laundering if it reinvests in issuers of securities that embellish their carbon footprint, the ECB ensures that it will be vigilant.
Its president, Christine Lagarde, stressed Thursday that to manage the risk of co-bleaching, the ECB would analyze in depth the transition plans that companies would submit to it.