Agnès Bénassy-Quéré: Speech - "Research conference on climate- and nature-related risks in the economic and financial systems"
Speech by Ms Agnès Bénassy-Quéré, Second Deputy Governor of the Bank of France, at the Research conference on climate- and nature-related risks in the economic and financial systems, Paris, 12 March 2026.
Let me thank all of you for your contributions and for attending this two-day conference. I'm impressed by the speed of knowledge-building in this area of research.
We received nearly 200 submissions.
The volume and the quality of the work show that research on climate and nature-related economic and financial risks remains extremely dynamic.
Policymakers in general, and central banks in particular need to rely on solid research and data when they incorporate climate and nature-related issues in their strategies and policy decisions. So, thank you for your efforts.
Consistently, let me start with my takeaways from the conference
From the different contributions, I would like to highlight three key messages.
1. Climate- and nature-related physical risks cannot be ignored from a macroeconomic standpoint
Physical risks, whether related to climate or to ecosystem degradation, are no longer a distant concern. They are already disrupting economic activity and affecting inflation, productivity and fiscal sustainability.
One paper [by Sarah Duffy] presented here showed how climate-related physical risks are reflected in sovereign borrowing costs.
Countries that are most vulnerable to climate shocks face higher borrowing rates, especially when their adaptive capacity is limited.