In July 2021, the European Central Bank (ECB) had presented an action plan to include climate change considerations in its monetary policy strategy, making a commitment to develop statistical indicators on climate change. Within this context, the ECB has published a first set of climate-related statistical indicators in order to better assess the impact of climate-related risks on the financial sector and to monitor the development of sustainable and green finance.

The published report provides a short description of the indicators, presents the methodology and highlights existing caveats, limitations and areas for further development. Three sets of indicators are included, covering sustainable finance, carbon emissions and physical risks.

The new indicators are either experimental or analytical, and therefore work in progress. The ECB, together with the national central banks, will work to improve the methodology and the data used.