Frank Elderson, a member of the executive board of the European Central Bank (ECB), recently emphasized that the climate emergency and the degradation of nature represent a substantial threat to the global financial system. According to Elderson, the ECB is intensifying its monitoring of financial risks associated with the loss of “ecosystem services”—the natural processes that support human economic activity.

Elderson noted that these services are currently in a state of rapid decline, which directly impacts the stability of the eurozone economy. By framing the issue as a dual crisis of climate and nature, the ECB is signaling that environmental factors are no longer peripheral concerns but are central to the bank's mandate of maintaining financial stability. While the ECB has not yet outlined specific new regulatory requirements, the focus remains on assessing how dependencies on nature create systemic vulnerabilities for banks and financial institutions. The Guardian reports that this shift reflects a broader trend among central banks to integrate environmental risk assessments into their core supervisory functions.