Move over, negative rates. There is a new issue baffling and dividing those running the world’s central banks: should they be helping to fight climate change? The answer has to be yes — within their mandates. For most central banks, that means taking significantly more action. But governments have their own part to play in spurring on indispensable market development.

The debate has been muddled because it has often conflated different aspects of central banks’ mandates: monetary policy, financial stability and management of ultimately government-owned assets. These differ widely in the degree to which they both require and permit taking climate change into account.

There is now a wide consensus that climate change is a financial stability risk. Research by BlackRock shows that asset prices often do not reflect true exposure to physical climate risks and those related to energy transition. Central banks have a responsibility to make the financial institutions they supervise treat these risks as rigorously as any other and many have begun to do so, following the Bank of England’s lead.