About the webinar
Date: 29 June 2021
Location: Hosted by the Bank of England virtually on GoToWebinar
On 29 June, we live streamed a webinar and discussion of the Bank's recently announced intention to start taking account of climate considerations in its approach to the £20bn of corporate bonds held under its Corporate Bond Purchase Scheme. Led by Rhys Phillips, Head of the Bank’s Sterling Markets Division, this event took place at 2pm - 3.15pm, and featured presentations from leading experts in climate conscious investing. Those who viewed the event online were invited to submit questions for the Bank and panellists, via the Chair.
Further detail on the context for this event can be found below.
An important first step in supporting the transition of the UK economy to net zero emissions by 2050, as required by a recent change to the Remit of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is to consider how to ‘green’ the CBPS. This will entail using our balance sheet to incentivise bond issuers to support transition, and encourage other investors to do likewise. We recently published a Discussion Paper setting out a framework for greening the CBPS in order to achieve these aims, accompanied by a speech.
This webinar is an important part of our outreach to discuss the issues raised in our paper with a wide range of stakeholders. Presenters and panellists were individuals or institutions with expertise in frameworks for net zero investing, or in the data, tools and methodologies on which these frameworks draw to become operational.