Thread by @ChrisGiles_

Seeking help with my opinion on central banks' "greening" their corporate bond buying

My prior is that this is style over substance - these have been reinforced by the @bankofengland output today

But am I wrong? - I'll lay out my thoughts below. Seeking challenge

Best place to see @bankofengland view is today's speech by Andrew Hauser bankofengland.co.uk/-/media/boe/fi…

I don't find it convincing - why?

1) It's terribly fashionable in central banking to be seen to be green. This is a red flag for me because this isn't the role of central banks

2) Hauser at no stage attempts to quantify the effect of BoE bond buying on the environment. Let's be clear, he would if he could. So, it's irrelevant to the issue

3) The BoE has resorted to the use of rubbish infographics - it always does this when it's got nothing to say

4) There's not a strong argument to suggest that the ownership of bonds makes much of a difference to environmental outcomes and could go in multiple directions - as Hauser acknowledges when rejecting a mass sale of dirty assets

5) Even though the BoE is desperate for favourable coverage for its "green agenda" it still, deep down, understands the day job in owning bonds is the management of demand - again this makes any of its actions peripheral

Finally - peripheral actions cut no ice with the climate. To get to net zero we need huge changes in electricity production, transport, domestic heating and to ensure we don't import carbon emissions if we stop producing them here....

All this bond buying stuff is a sideshow