These issues will be discussed at the online seminar hosted by the research group Companies, Markets and Sustainability and the research project Central banks' expanding role in financial markets. The seminar is a cooperation between Edge Hill University, Norway Inland University of Applied Sciences and the University of Oslo.
Abstract
To an increasing extent, we see that central banks engage or are asked to engage, by civil society, politicians and academics, in issue related to the climate crisis.
On the one hand, it can be argued that the climate crisis influences both price stability and financial stability – two core concerns of many central banks. On the other hand, it can be seen as a part of a general tendency, where central banks are no longer expected to only safeguard price stability in a narrow sense. More generally, in the aftermath of the outbreak of the Global Financial Crisis in 2007 and again today in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, we see that central banks have gained an expanding role in crisis management. In particular, there has been an unprecedented increase in central bank purchases of financial assets in the market in an attempt to stretch out a giant public safety net across the financial system and stimulate economic growth.
This prompts the question of whether a broader role for central banks in questions related to the climate crisis require rethinking their independence from democratic politics, or does it fit within their current mandate?
Moreover, if central banks have a role to play with regards to fighting the climate crisis, are the tools available good enough?
These questions will be discussed at the online seminar by the speakers.
Confirmed speakers
Christina Parajon Skinner is an Assistant Professor at Wharton University of Pennsylvania and she is an expert on financial regulation. Her research focuses on central banking, the debt markets, separation of powers, corporate governance, and law and macroeconomics. Prior to joining Wharton, Skinner served as legal counsel at the Bank of England, in the Financial Stability Division of the Bank’s Legal Directorate.
Jay Cullen is the Head of Law and Criminology and Professor of Financial Regulation at Edge Hill University. Prior to this, he was Professor of Financial Regulation and Director of Research at the University of York. He is also an Adjunct Research Professor at the University of Oslo where he co-ordinates research on sustainable finance.
Matthias Goldmann is Professor for International Law at ESB University and a Senior Research Affiliate at Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, Heidelberg. Prior to this he was Junior Professor of International Public Law and Financial Law, Goethe University Frankfurt. He is also a Co-Editor-in-Chief of the German Law Journal.
Rosa Lastra is the Sir John Lubbock Chair in Banking Law and Chair of the Institute of Banking and Finance Law the Centre for Commercial Law Studies at Queen Mary University of London. Amongst other things she has been appointed specialist adviser to the House of Lords in an inquiry on the Quantitative Easing (QE) programme of the Bank of England, conducted by the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee.
Trude Myklebust is a legal expert in financial market regulation. She has been a PhD research fellow at the University of Oslo writing on 'Fair, orderly and sustainable financial markets’. Prior to this, she has worked at the Ministry of Finance and as a senior advisor to the Norwegian Supreme Court. She is currently a board member of the Norwegian Banks’ Guarantee Fund and the Council on Ethics for the Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global. She has also been a member of Norway’s Climate Risk Commission, an expert commission appointed by the Norwegian Government to assess climate-related risk factors and their significance for the Norwegian economy.
Moderator
Astrid Iversen joined Norway University of Applied Sciences in 2020 as an Associate Professor in Law. She is currently on leave to do research on central banks' expanding role in financial markets in times of crisis, in a joint research project between Inland University and the faculty of law at the University of Oslo.
Presentations
Presentations from the seminar (in .pdf):
- Central Banks and the Climate change, Professor Christina P. Skinner
- Climate change and central banks: mission impossible?, Professor Jay Cullen
- Why the ECB may – and must – combat climate change Workshop Central Banks and the Climate Crisis, Matthias Goldmann
- Central Banking, Climate Change and Sustainability, Professor Rosa Lastra
- Assessing climate related financial risks in a central bank perspective – the TCFD framework, Trude Myklebust