The ECB will take the climate into account for its purchases of corporate bonds | Photo credits: Istock
FRANKFURT, Sept 19 (Reuters) – The European Central Bank (ECB) said on Monday it would adjust its purchases of corporate bonds to favor borrowers who emit the least greenhouse gases, allocating to each from them a score calculated on the basis of their past performance, their objectives and their transparency.
“Our objective is to reduce the Eurosystem’s exposure to climate-related financial risk,” the ECB said in a statement.
“In addition, these measures promote the green transition of the economy, in line with the European Union’s climate neutrality objectives.”
The ECB unveiled a series of measures last year, affecting both banking supervision and monetary policy, intended to enable it to play an active role in the fight against climate change.
From October, purchases of corporate bonds made by the ECB will therefore take into account a “climate note” established by the central bank.
However, the latter does not plan to sell bonds issued by a company with a low rating and it will not publish the ratings assigned to each of the borrowers concerned.
These ratings will take into account past greenhouse gas emissions, which will be compared with those of each company’s main competitors, the stated objectives for reducing these emissions and the quality of the information made public on climate-related topics. .
The ECB “will use the climate rating to adjust its bids on the primary market in order to favor issuers with better climate performance and to impose maturity limits on the bonds of issuers with low ratings”, specifies the press release.
(Report by Francesco Canepa and Balazs Koranyi, French version by Marc Angrand, edited by Sophie Louet)