Playing the “Constitutional Wild Card”—Future-Shaping by Central Banks

Climate change mitigation and adaptation have been entering the agenda of the central banks. While embracing the cause of the Paris Agreement, the self-empowerment for the pursuit of a non-monetary goal in their monetary policy may further exacerbate existing deficits in the democratic control of central banks. Moreover, as regards the European Central Bank (ECB), the principle of conferral in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) might set bounds to a “greening” of its monetary policy.