Climate risks affect the policy work
News Climate change, and the measures taken to manage it, may affect the conditions for the Riksbank to fulfil its mandate. It is therefore important for the Riksbank to follow, understand and, as far as this is compatible with its remit, include climate change in its work. Today, 14 December, the Riksbank publishes its new Climate Report, which explains why and how the Riksbank works with climate-related risks.
The Riksbank needs to analyse climate-related risks in several areas of its operations, and to include them in its considerations: For example, in monetary policy, asset management, in work on financial stability and in the payment market. The Riksbank also takes part in several international collaborations to help reduce the risks of climate change.
– The responsibility for taking policy measures against climate change lies primarily with politicians. However, we have several reasons to consider climate-related risks in our policy work, for example, we need to monitor and understand how climate change affects the economy in order to fulfil our tasks. We also aim to support the objectives of general economic policy with a view to achieving sustainable growth and high employment, says Anna Breman, Deputy Governor of the Riksbank.
The new report describes how the Riksbank takes account of climate-related risks in its policy work. For example, the Riksbank takes sustainability into account when purchasing corporate bonds and when selecting assets in the foreign exchange reserves. It has also looked at the effects that higher sea levels can have on financial stability, and how economic development can be affected by climate change on the basis of different scenarios.