(Bloomberg) -- The head of Singapore’s central bank called on global peers to show urgency in greening financial markets and pursuing policies that help the world achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
The global recovery from the pandemic is being powered by fossil fuels and the financing landscape will determine how soon the world transitions to its green goals, Ravi Menon, managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, said Tuesday at the Bank of International Settlements’ “Green Swan” virtual conference.
“The trajectory toward net-zero will be substantially determined by 2030,” he said. “Looking at where we are in our transition journey, the urgency to act is greater than it has ever been.”
Menon, who’s chair of the Network for Greening the Financial System, emphasized that global central banks need to consider climate risks while setting monetary policies.
“From a central bank’s perspective, climate change is the ultimate supply-side shock,” he said, adding that the network “will explore how monetary policy operations could potentially support the transition to a net-zero economy.”
The NGFS was founded in 2017 by eight central banks and supervisors to encourage green financing and the role of central banks in fighting climate change. It now has 114 members and 18 observers.
Singapore’s monetary authority has already unveiled a program to assess companies’ environmental impact and identify emerging environmental risks, as well as to check against so-called “greenwashing” of projects.
“It’s imperative for central banks and supervisors to consider these risks in fulfilling their mandates,” Menon said, adding that “climate change is a shared crisis.”
©2022 Bloomberg L.P.
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