Interview with Frank Elderson, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB and Vice-Chair of the Supervisory Board of the ECB, conducted by Eva Smal on 15 April 2026

22 April 2026

People often say that the ECB has no role in climate policy. What do you respond?

No, we are not policymakers. We do not make climate or nature policies. That is done by others, elected governments. They are the ones who signed the Paris Climate Agreement and decided on the Green Deal. As a central bank, we do none of that. But we do have to take it into consideration. We are responsible for price stability, financial stability and ensuring sound, resilient banks. And we can only achieve those objectives if we take account of the climate and nature crises.

We cannot ignore the fact that, due to climate change, the Rhine was not navigable for eight weeks in 2022, which pushed food price inflation up by an additional 0.7 percentage points. If we failed to take that into account, we would not be doing our job….