It is essential that we push ahead with capital markets union, in view of the climate crisis. This was the unanimous opinion of the German Banking Congress panel “Climate mitigation: are the sails well set?”, whose participants included the President of the Association of German Banks, Christian Sewing, member of the German Council of Economic Experts, Ulrike Malmendier, Co-Leader of Alliance 90/The Greens, Omid Nouripour and Chairman of the Managing Board of Heidelberg Materials, Dominik von Achten. “Without capital markets union, the Green Deal is dead,” concluded Christian Sewing who is also CEO of Deutsche Bank. It is needed to finance the green growth strategy of the European Union (EU), he said. Omid Nouripour also emphasised the relevance of capital markets union. It costs “money and huge business opportunities that here in the EU we are not together.”
Stronger tailwind for the green transformation
All the panellists agreed that in order to strengthen climate mitigation, there needs to be greater urgency in Germany and in the EU. Head of Heidelberg Materials, Dominik von Achten, said that the US was already overtaking us in the fast lane and said, “When the Americans believe in something, then it’s full sail ahead – both in terms of financing and official authorisations.” Economic Expert Ulrike Malmendier agreed and added, “One of our biggest shortcomings is not to have further strengthened the capital market in Germany and Europe.” This applies in particular to financing green technologies, she said.
