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This is historic news: today, the European Central Bank opened a door and took its first steps on a clear path towards a fossil free future.
This just in: Europe’s most powerful central bank
is finally, genuinely on its way to ditch fossil fuel finance 😳
I write emails like this one for a living,
Ulrich - but today (8.7.21) I’m struggling to find just the right words. It’s difficult
to express how HUGE this news is for our fight to end fossil fuel finance - and
how far we’ve come since we launched our campaign 15 months ago.
The European Central Bank is at the very
heart of Europe’s financial system. Where it goes, other central, public and
private banks in some of the world’s richest countries must follow. And today, the ECB opened a door and
took its first steps on a clear path towards a fossil free future.
[1]
Here’s a 1-minute recap of this
breaking news: please watch and share!
In a press conference earlier today,
Christine Lagarde, President of the ECB, said: "We have acknowledged that
climate change is an essential challenge for the world, and is of strategic
importance for the ECB’s mandate". [2]
The Bank’s new strategy, published today,
centers the climate crisis, with clear plans and timelines to address climate
risks, and end the Bank’s support to the dirtiest industries. [3] It’s an unprecedented move, and a
clear signal to banks around the world: the era of fossil finance is coming to
an end.
But - there’s always a but - it’s just the
first step, and there’s so much more to do to meet the urgency of the climate
crisis. The roadmap published today doesn’t go far enough or quickly enough,
and leaves too many loopholes. [4] Most importantly, it doesn’t clearly promise an
immediate end to all support to coal, oil and gas companies.
The devil is in the details - and the details just aren’t there yet.
Ulrich, despite these shortfalls, today I feel so much joy, and so
much pride at what we achieved together. It took almost 15
months of campaigning, through a tough year of lockdowns and heartaches. In
that time:
- Close to 170,000 of us signed our petition for an
end to fossil fuel finance,
- We sent almost 15,000 individual, personalised
letters to Christine Lagarde demanding her leadership in ending support to
climate criminals,
- Tens of thousands of us sent countless tweets and
wrote hundreds of Facebook comments, recorded video and voice messages,
painted banners and took selfies,
- We uplifted the stories and amplified the voices
of local communities in Latin America and Africa, fighting against
destructive fossil fuel projects funded with the European Central Bank’s
support to climate criminals such as Total and Shell,
- We co-organised and showed up to multiple protests
and actions targeting the ECB,
- And much more!
Working with our wonderful coalition
partners [5] and thanks to the involvement of all of us across Europe, we
managed to get heard by Christine Lagarde and her staff. We pushed the world’s most powerful
central bank, historically conservative and dogmatically committed to market
neutrality, to not only address climate action in their strategy - but make it
into a central, overarching issue. [6] There’s still a long way
to go - but today, we helped make climate movement history.
Ulrich, none of this would have happened
without 350.org supporters like you taking action online and offline, and our
shared commitment to building a fossil free future. But this is not the
end.
We’re already planning next steps - to
close the loopholes in the ECB’s strategy, and to go after other central banks
and private financial institutions to demand they urgently follow the ECB’s
footsteps. If you can afford it, please chip in
to help us fund our ambitious campaign plans over the coming months, and keep
taking on this crucial fight to cut off the money flowing into the fossil fuel
industry!
Today, we celebrate: but tomorrow, we
mobilise again. Thank you for being in this fight with me.
Onwards,
Julia, for the entire 350.org Europe team
Sources:
[1] ECB
presents action plan to include climate change considerations in its monetary
policy strategy
[2] ECB
Strategy review press conference - 08 July 2021
[3] Euractiv: ECB
pledges to factor climate change more into policy
[4] Greenpeace: ‘Green’
light for ECB’s monetary policy, but goes too slow
[5] 350.org: Open
Letter to Ms. Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank
[6] 350.org Europe on Twitter: ECB
Breaking news, a thread
