MNI BRIEF: Legal Risk If No NCB Action On Climate-ECB Elderson

Central banks could be sued for doing too little, too late on climate change, European Central Bank Executive Board member Frank Elderson said in an ECB podcast posted Wednesday, with the ECB's legal obligation to support the economic policies of the European Union necessarily extending to those underpinning the transition to a green economy.

However any central bank actions on climate change must be proportional and do no more than is required to achieve the primary mandate of price stability, he said. Central banks must not move from "green neglect to green dominance," fellow board member Isabel Schnabel agreed, while noting that climate change has emerged as a core concern during the ECB's public listening exercise.