By Marc Jones
LONDON (Reuters) – The European Central Bank and euro zone national central banks will publish in their first detailed “carbon footprints” in the coming days, figures that will show the environmental impact of years of crisis-fighting efforts.
The ECB and the 20 countries that use the euro have spent trillions of euros during years of rolling crises buying bonds, including those of companies that are heavy polluters.
“We will be disclosing the (ECB and Eurosystem) carbon footprint” Clara Raposo, a vice governor at Portugal’s national central bank, said during an OMFIF-hosted sustainable policy conference.
Carbon footprints measure of the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere as a result of everyday activities. For the ECB and euro zone national central banks that includes asset buying programmes, as well as areas such as staff pensions.
The latest ECB figures show it owns just over 340 billion euros worth of corporate bonds bought under its corporate sector purchase programme (CSPP) plus another 45 billion euros worth purchased with its COVID-era Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme (PEPP).
Raposo said while she wasn’t “particularly ecstatic” about the size of the carbon footprints, it was an important process and a benchmark to work from.
(Reporting by Marc Jones; editing by Jason Neely)
