In particular, climate change will be taken into account by the ECB when purchasing bonds held for monetary policy purposes, as part of the Eurosystem’s collateral, disclosure and risk management requirements.
These measures can be traced back to the July 2021 Climate Action Plan.
In particular:
- as regards corporate bonds, ECB will direct its investments towards issuers with better climate performance, taking into account lower greenhouse gas emissions, carbon reduction targets and improved climate disclosure;
- as regards the collateral framework, ECB will limit the use of assets issued by entities with a high carbon footprint. In the first instance, these limits will only cover debt instruments issued by non-financial corporations;
- as soon as the new Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) has been implemented, ECB will only accept assets from companies and debtors that comply with it;
- as regards risk assessment and management, ECB will enhance rating agencies to be more transparent about how they integrate climate risks into their ratings and to be more ambitious in their disclosure requirements on such risks.
The results confirm the overall resilience of European Union (EU) CCPs, as well as third-country Tier 2 CCPs, to credit, concentration and operational risks under the tested scenarios and implemented framework.
However, the stress test also identified areas where some CCPs may need to strengthen their risk management frameworks, or where further supervisory work should be prioritised, including on concentration and operational risks.
