Climate, nature and sustainable finance

Climate change, the necessary backdrop to our missions

Climate change matters for central banks because it affects growth and price stability. This is why the Eurosystem is committed to taking full account of the implications of climate change for monetary policy and central banking. The Banque de France was a major contributor to the ECB strategy review, finalised in July 2021, which formalised this objective. It also continues to work within the Eurosystem to implement its shared action plan. 

As part of their mission to preserve financial stability, the Banque de France and the Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution (ACPR) work to better understand how French banks and insurers are exposed to climate-related risks. They also ensure that financial institutions are capable of addressing these threats.

Beyond climate-related risks, the Banque de France and the ACPR also examine the economic and financial risks linked to nature degradation, which can impact monetary and financial stability.

The Banque de France is a key player in the greening of the financial system

The Banque de France contributed to the launch of the Network of Central Banks and Supervisors for Greening the Financial System or NGFS. The network groups together over 140 member institutions and helps central banks and supervisors to incorporate climate challenges and ensure they are properly accounted for by the financial sector.

The Banque de France (along with the ACPR) contributes to the NGFS, but also uses its research to build macro-financial scenarios for financial sector climate stress tests, improve its supervisory practices and responsible investment policy, and develop its climate reporting.
 

The Banque de France is helping to promote sustainable finance

The Banque de France has also incorporated climate concerns into its services to the economy. It is examining ways of including climate risk in its company ratings system and has developed a prototype indicator to measure companies’ exposure and how well they manage these threats.  It assesses the integration of climate risks into company ratings and is deploying an indicator to evaluate a company’s situation with regard to its exposure to and management of these risks. As the steering body for France’s national financial literacy strategy (EDUCFI), the Banque de France also organises training and information sessions on sustainable finance for the general public (especially for students and financial professionals).

The Banque de France is a responsible investor

Since 2018, the Banque de France has adopted a responsible investor (RI) approach for the portfolios over which it has full and direct responsibility.

This approach is structured around three pillars: 

• Pillar 1: The Banque de France aligns its investments with France’s climate and nature commitments.
• Pillar 2: The Banque de France integrates environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria into its asset management.
• Pillar 3: The Banque de France exercises its voting rights as a shareholder and engages with issuers

Research

The Banque de France conducts research on the economic and financial issues related to climate change and nature degradation, as well as on the public policies in these areas. These studies aim to improve collective understanding of the impact of climate- and nature-related risks on the economy, the financial sector, and the financing of the ecological transition. They also help guide the Banque de France’s actions in this field. 

The Bank is developing a research agenda to be conducted by an internal “climate and green finance” network of researchers from its different departments. Since 2016, it has organised an annual academic conference on climate-related topics and, since 2018, has awarded an annual prize to young researchers working on green finance.

In 2025, the Banque de France announced the creation of a French modelling consortium dedicated to studying the macroeconomic transmission channels of nature-related risks. This multi-year research project is a partnership between the Banque de France and the research labs of CREST, École Polytechnique, CIRED, PSE (i-MIP), and the Foundation for Biodiversity Research

International work

The Banque de France and the ACPR participate in initiatives at the European and international levels: Financial Stability Board, Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, International Association of Insurance Supervisors, G7, G20, etc.

As founding members of the NGFS, the Banque de France and ACPR contribute actively to the network's three objectives: to share best practices between peers, to contribute to the development of environmental and climate-related risk management in the financial sector, and to increase the financial sector’s commitment to the transition toward a sustainable economy. The ACPR is also a member of the Sustainable Insurance Forum which deals specifically with issues related to insurance.

The Centre for Climate and Nature (CCN)

Created in 2021 by the Banque de France, the Climate Change Centre (CCC), renamed in 2025 the Centre for Climate and Nature (CCN), has the following missions:

The CCN’s ambition is to accelerate the integration of climate and nature-related risks by Banque de France teams, so that it can continue to act as a driving force with it partners, central bankers and supervisors.

To address the risks posed by climate change and nature degradation to the stability of the financial system, for which it is responsible, the Banque de France has set up a “hub” to coordinate all actions undertaken by its various directorates in the fight against climate change and nature degradation. Created in 2021, the role and priorities of the Centre are presented by Bertille Delaveau, Head of the Climate Change Centre at the Banque de France from 2021 to 2023.”