Cbanker: Crisis management mustn’t come at expense of sustainability

Hungary’s central bank is working hard to bring inflation under control, but the management of the current crisis must not come at the expense of sustainability goals, Csaba Kandrács, the deputy governor of the National Bank of Hungary, said on Thursday.

Speaking at the central bank’s green financing conference, Kandrács called for doubling efforts to achieve green goals.

He emphasised Hungary’s commitment to a sustainable economy, noting that the central bank had been handed a green mandate by parliament.

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The bank has launched multiple programmes in the interest of sustainability, such as conducting a stress test to determine which sectors would be most affected by climate change, Kandrács said. It has also prepared recommendations for credit institutions, launched the Green Home Programme aimed at improving the energy efficiency of households and is cooperating with universities and researchers, he added.

“This year will go down in history as the year of crises, not just because of the attack on Ukraine and the prolonged pandemic, but also because of the drastic rise in the costs of food, energy and living, as well as global economic challenges,” he said.

Kandrács said 2022 could become the “milestone marking the end of the golden age of globalisation” and the beginning of “the era of the regionalisation of trade”.

He warned that the fight against climate change and the protection of biodiversity were getting less attention on the international stage, while businesses were looking for ways out of their commitments.

“Meanwhile, nature is sending us red flags,” Kandrács said, noting that this past summer was the driest in the last 500 years, and both Europe and China were facing problems caused by droughts.

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Source: MTI