Commitment of Banka Slovenije to participate in the global response to climate change

The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26)  is being held in Glasgow between 31 October and 12 November in Glasgow with the key objective to draft rules for international carbon markets and to thus complete the Rulebook for the implementation of the Paris Agreement, financing, adapting to climate change, losses and damage, and to strengthen ambitions to achieve the target of limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

To mark the conference central banks are also committing, within the frameworks of our mandates, to participate in the global response in the fight against climate change, which is necessary to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement.

Banka Slovenije is well aware of the increasing climate risks and of the importance of collective efforts, and so we take an active role in the working groups of the relevant international institutions, such as within the framework of the European Central Bank, European Systemic Risk Board and the European Banking Authority. In October 2020 Banka Slovenije joined the Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS). Around a hundred institutions work together in the network, including central banks, other banking supervisors and international financial institutions. Involvement in the NGFS helps to promote a more comprehensive tretament of climate risks in the Slovenian financial system.

The new monetary policy strategy of the European Central Bank (ECB) also systematically takes into account climate change considerations. . The Governing Council of the ECB has adopted a comprehensive action plan with an ambitious timetable of activities to further incorporate climate change considerations into its policy framework.

Banka Slovenije commits  to contribute, within its mandate, to the goals of the Paris Agreement and to the efforts of the NGFS within the following areas:

  • as a member of the Eurosystem, we will continue our engagement in the development and implementation of supervisory methodologies and practices for climaterelated and environmental risks; in 2022 banks will be subject to a climate risk stress test exercise for the first time;
  • in our analyses we will take into account climate change considerations and the impact of the related measures on macroeconomic developments;
  • in our asset management, we will strive for socially responsible and sustainable goals; over the next two years we will begin reporting the carbon footprint and other indicators of socially responsible and sustainable investing, which will contribute to the goals of a lowcarbon economy;
  • we will promote the integration of climate and environmental risks into risk management frameworks and decisionmaking processes by maintaining an open and regular dialogue with credit institutions;
  • we will strengthen our staff’s skills and qualifications to adequately address the impact of climate change in all areas of the operations of Banka Slovenije; we will deepen cooperation with other relevant institutions in order to introduce best practices and avoid duplication of work;
  • In the course of 2022 we will have adopted an action plan aiming at the reduction of our own carbon footprint.