Keynote speech by Frank Elderson, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB and Vice-Chair of the Supervisory Board of the ECB, at the ECB industry dialogue on “Climate and nature risk management: taking stock and looking ahead”

Frankfurt am Main, 1 October 2025

Introduction

Good morning and a very warm welcome to our industry dialogue on climate and nature-related (C&N) risks.^[1]

It is great to see so many of you here today to share your views, discuss progress and explore solutions to the challenges we still face. Together, we have all come a long way since we first started discussing C&N risks in 2019.

Back then, the idea of C&N risks featuring structurally in banks’ risk appetite, risk management and stress-testing frameworks seemed a distant goal.

Today, however, we can see that banks across Europe have made impressive strides in building the capacity to account for C&N risks. Thanks to the hard work of many – not only in the boards but also in front offices, risk management…