Fund or investment bank in the energy transition: Important to understand the mechanisms
It is often suggested to create a fund or a bank that would be specialised in the financing of energy transition (there has been talk about a "green New Deal"). Such a creation would be made easier by the abundance of savings and the low interest rates. But it is important to understand the mechanisms: At equilibrium, savings are equal to investment; all global savings are currently invested and, as the global unemployment rate is very low, the potential increase in production and therefore in savings is small. If it is decided to sharply increase investments in energy transition, other investments will therefore have to be reduced . There is also talk about "green quantitative easing". With quantitative easing, the central bank creates money by buying bonds. This has no effect on the quantity of available savings. If the central bank buys green bonds as a priority , the effect will be a sharper fall in the yields on these bonds than on the others. However, given the current level of long-term interest rates worldwide, this effect would be very limited .