ECB Climate-related meetings: A preliminary exploration

Introduction

I spent the day doing a preliminary exploration of ECB’s private meetings that may be relevant for us. These findings are preliminary, since they rely on a rather crude keyword-based approach to identify relevant meetings, with minimal screening to remove false negatives. We’ll have to manually review these at some point in the future, yet I wanted to provide some first glimpse at our data through a few vizualisations and targeted explorations, that I explain below.

Reminder: key policy dates

We discussed in our previous email exchanges mainly these two dates:

• July 4, 2022: Announcement of climate considerations into corporate bond purchases
• February 2, 2023: Decision to tilt more strongly towards better climate performance (only lasted a few months before QT)

However, I also added

• July 8, 2021: ECB Climate Action Plan

Once we update our data, we should also add the July 2024 decision to delay the tilting of the collateral framework tilting, and the July 2025 decision to implement the climate factor approach to the collateral framework.

Methodology

Data Source

I use our latest version of the ECB meeting diaries coded from November 2015 to October 2023 (16,356 meetings across Executive Board and Supervisory Board). While the dataset still contains a few potential coding errors and will need updating for more recent years, it is more than enough for a first test.

Step 1: Keyword-Based Identification

I identified potentially climate-related meetings using a keyword search in meeting descriptions. The positive keyword dictionary includes:

• “climate”, “green”, “environment”, “sustainable”, “sustainability”, “carbon”, “emission”, “warming”, “transition”, “decarboni”, “ESG”, “taxonomy”, “Paris Agreement”, “ngfs”

This initial search yielded approximately 250 meetings.

Step 2: False Positive Filtering

A first manual look at these meetings showed me that a few were flagged due to generic phrases like “economic environment” rather than genuine climate discussions. I therefore implemented a negative screening dictionary to exclude a few expressions that typically yield false positives:

• “economic environment”, “regulatory environment”, “operating environment”, “macroeconomic environment”, “financial environment”

After this filtering, 237 meetings remained as potentially climate-related.

Step 3: Manual Review (Pending)

Even if this negative screening removed some false negatives, there may be more still in the data. If we decide to proceed with this project, I strongly recommend a thorough and systematic manual review of these 237 meetings to confirm the relevance of each flagged meeting, while providing us with qualitative insight into meeting content and patterns. It should really not be long, and I would recommend this step to be conducted by 2 of us independently to ensure we don’t miss anything. For this exploratory report, I proceed with the automatically identified sample, having only excluded meetings coded as “Event” in the original data.¹

Climate Meetings

The table below shows all the climate-related meetings identified by our positive+negative keywords based approach:

Date	Board Member	Meeting Description	Actor Category
2017-04-04	Benoît Cœuré	Meeting with Amundi, on portfolio decarbonisation	Finance and business
2017-06-20	Peter Praet	Meeting with ING trainees, on impact of low interest environment for profitability of banks and the completion of banking union in the light of recent challenges to EU integration	Finance and business
2017-07-12	Benoît Cœuré	Meeting with HSBC, on portfolio decarbonisation	Finance and business
2017-10-24	Yves Mersch	Meeting with Director General of French Treasury, Ms Odile Renaud Basso, on economic/financial markets environment in Europe	Political
2018-01-11	Peter Praet	Meeting with Caisse d’Epargne Côte d’Azur, on monetary policy in a post-crisis environment	Finance and business
2018-02-22	Yves Mersch	Meeting of European Banking Federation's Executive Committee – speech on “Reaping the benefits of payment services in a new regulatoryenvironment”	Finance and business
2019-02-04	Benoît Cœuré	Meeting with WWF France, on climate finance	Academia and civil society
2019-02-25	Sabine Lautenschläger	Meeting with Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI), Mr Alfred Hannig, Executive Director, on fintech, green finance and innovative payment solutions	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2019-05-09	Benoît Cœuré	Meeting with former Chief Executive Officer of WWF France, on climate change	Academia and civil society
2019-06-28	Sabine Lautenschläger	Visit by the Eleventh Civil Panel of the German Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof – BGH)	Media and other
2019-09-30	Benoît Cœuré	Meeting with International Capital Market Association (ICMA), on Brexit, the capital markets union and green finance	Finance and business
2019-10-07	Luis de Guindos	Meeting with European Financial Services Round Table (EFR), on sustainable finance	Finance and business
2019-10-07	Mario Draghi	Meeting with European Financial Services Round Table (EFR), on sustainable finance	Finance and business
2019-10-07	Sabine Lautenschläger	Meeting with European Financial Services Round Table (EFR), on sustainable finance	Finance and business
2019-10-07	Yves Mersch	Meeting with European Financial Services Round Table (EFR), on sustainable finance	Finance and business
2019-10-14	Benoît Cœuré	Meeting with Member of the European Parliament, Mr Pascal Canfin, on climate change	Political
2019-12-12	Christine Lagarde	Meeting with President and Chief Executive Officer of Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, Ms Mary Daly, on the latest economic developments, diversity in economics and climate change	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2019-12-17	Christine Lagarde	Meeting with Vice-President of the European Investment Bank (EIB), Mr Ambroise Fayolle, on the challenges of climate change	Finance and business
2020-04-15	Isabel Schnabel	Meeting with Alliance 90/The Greens (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen), Mr Anton Hofreiter, Ms Lisa Paus, and Mr Sven-Christian Kindler, on the economic consequences of COVID-19 – teleconference	Political
2020-06-10	Christine Lagarde	Meeting with Greenpeace International, on the ECB’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change ‒ teleconference	Academia and civil society
2020-09-10	Edouard Fernandez-Bollo	Meeting with European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), on green finance	Finance and business
2020-09-10	Edouard Fernandez-Bollo	Meeting with Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation Europe Limited, on Brexit, a green supporting factor and LIBOR	Finance and business
2020-09-21	Elizabeth McCaul	Meeting with US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Mr Rostin Behnam, on managing climate risk in the US financial system – teleconference	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2020-10-27	Andrea Enria	Hearing before the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) of the European Parliament – introductory statement via teleconference on the ECB response to the COVID-19 crisis, Brexit, climate-related risks and completing the banking union	Political
2020-11-02	Isabel Schnabel	Meeting with Federal Chairman of Allianz 90/The Greens (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen), Mr Robert Habeck, and Member of the German Bundestag, Mr Danyal Bayaz, on economic and financial developments – teleconference	Political
2020-11-02	Isabel Schnabel	Meeting with Bank of Japan, Ms Takako Masai, Member of the Policy Board, and Mr Seiji Adachi, Head of the Frankfurt office, on monetary policy, climate change and diversity – teleconference	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2020-11-09	Christine Lagarde	Meeting with Goldman Sachs, on sustainable finance – teleconference	Finance and business
2020-11-13	Isabel Schnabel	Meeting with Member of the European Parliament, Mr Luis Garicano, on monetary policy and climate change – teleconference	Political
2020-11-19	Isabel Schnabel	Meeting with Greenpeace, on monetary policy and climate change – teleconference	Academia and civil society
2020-12-10	Isabel Schnabel	Meeting with Bank of England, Executive Director for Markets, Mr Andrew Hauser, on issues related to climate change – teleconference	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2020-12-17	Isabel Schnabel	Regular exchange of views with German economists, on the coronavirus (COVID-19), organised by German Ministry of Finance – remarks on “Climate change and monetary policy” – teleconference	Academia and civil society
2021-01-21	Frank Elderson	Central Banks and Supervisors Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS) Steering Committee meeting – teleconference	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2021-01-27	Isabel Schnabel	Meeting with BlackRock, on sustainability – teleconference	Finance and business
2021-02-04	Frank Elderson	Meeting with Harvard Kennedy School, on the effects of climate change on the economy and inflation – teleconference	Academia and civil society
2021-02-04	Isabel Schnabel	Meeting with Harvard Kennedy School, on the effects of climate change on the economy and inflation – teleconference	Academia and civil society
2021-02-04	Philip R. Lane	Meeting with Harvard Kennedy School, on the effects of climate change on the economy and inflation – teleconference	Academia and civil society
2021-02-05	Frank Elderson	Meeting with the Member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Ms Leal Brainard, on climate-related issues – teleconference	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2021-02-08	Frank Elderson	Central Banks and Supervisors Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS) Steering Committee meeting – teleconference	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2021-02-09	Edouard Fernandez-Bollo	Meeting with McKinsey, on supervisory priorities, the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis on credit risk, consolidation in the banking sector and innovative movements (gender diversity, climate risk) – teleconference	Finance and business
2021-02-10	Frank Elderson	Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) Task Force on Climate-related Financial Risks – teleconference	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2021-02-19	Frank Elderson	Meeting with the World Health Organization (WHO) Pan- European Commission on Health and Sustainable Development / Working Group (3b) on Health, Sustainable Development and the Economy, on macroeconomic challenges and mobilising finance for health and sustainable development – teleconference	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2021-02-26	Frank Elderson	Meeting between BCBS Task Force on Climate-related Financial Risks and the Financial Stability Board (FSB), on current common issues – teleconference	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2021-03-02	Isabel Schnabel	Meeting with Rotterdam School of Management, on central banks and climate change – teleconference	Academia and civil society
2021-03-03	Frank Elderson	Meeting with World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), on greening financial regulation and the financial risk of biodiversity loss – teleconference	Academia and civil society
2021-03-15	Frank Elderson	Meeting with the Chair of the Financial Stability Board (FSB), Mr Randal K. Quarles, on potential areas of coordination between the Central Banks and Supervisors Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS) and the FSB – teleconference	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2021-03-29	Frank Elderson	Meeting with Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Mr Paul Hilbers, and high-level representatives of De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), on climate change – teleconference	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2021-03-30	Frank Elderson	Meeting with Rotterdam School of Management, on central banks and climate change – teleconference	Academia and civil society
2021-03-30	Isabel Schnabel	Meeting with Rotterdam School of Management, on central banks and climate change – teleconference	Academia and civil society
2021-03-30	Philip R. Lane	Meeting with Rotterdam School of Management, on central banks and climate change – teleconference	Academia and civil society
2021-04-12	Frank Elderson	NGFS plenary meeting – teleconference	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2021-04-12	Frank Elderson	Central Banks and Supervisors Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS) Legal Task Force on climate-related litigation – teleconference	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2021-04-12	Isabel Schnabel	Meeting with the Bank of England, Mr Andrew Hauser, Executive Director for Markets, Mr Matthew Trott and Ms Bethany Blowers, on central banks and climate change – teleconference	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2021-04-13	Christine Lagarde	Virtual US Treasury Regulatory Roundtable with Secretary of the US Treasury, Ms Janet Yellen – leading intervention on “Managing climate-related financial risks”	Political
2021-04-30	Frank Elderson	NGFS plenary expert session on the global review on the economics of biodiversity – teleconference	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2021-05-10	Frank Elderson	Meeting with Sustainable Insurance Forum (SIF), on issues related to the Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS) – teleconference	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2021-05-18	Isabel Schnabel	Meeting with senior fellows from Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE), on central banking and climate change – teleconference	Academia and civil society
2021-05-18	Frank Elderson	Meeting with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Deputy Comptroller for International Banking and Capital Policy, Mr Amrit Sekhon, and Senior International Advisor for International Banking, Mr Erik Van Zandt, on issues related to the NGFS – teleconference	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2021-05-27	Andrea Enria	Meeting with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) and Afore Consulting, on sustainable finance – teleconference	Finance and business
2021-05-28	Frank Elderson	Meeting with Member of the European Parliament, Mr Pascal Canfin, on the greening of the ECB – teleconference	Political
2021-06-07	Frank Elderson	Central Banks and Supervisors Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS) meeting – Climate Scenarios Phase II launch event – teleconference	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2021-06-16	Andrea Enria	Meeting with Chief Executive Officer of the UK Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), Mr Sam Woods, on supervisory issues in a post-Brexit environment – teleconference	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2021-06-22	Christine Lagarde	Meeting with Norges Bank, Mr Øystein Olsen, Governor, and Ms Ida Wolden Bache, Deputy Governor, on macro and financial stability, sustainability issues, and policy responses to the COVID-19 crisis in the euro area and Norway – teleconference	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2021-06-25	Frank Elderson	Meeting with the French Banking Federation (FBF), on supervisory and climate risk stress test topics – teleconference	Finance and business
2021-06-25	Andrea Enria	Meeting with the French Banking Federation (FBF) on the economic and credit outlook in the banking union and France, supervisory issues concerning internal models, the 2021 stress test and 2022 climate risk stress test – teleconference	Finance and business
2021-06-25	Frank Elderson	Bilateral meeting with Mr Mark Carney, COP26 Private Finance Hub, on issues related to climate change – teleconference	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2021-06-28	Frank Elderson	Meeting with Ms Mairead McGuinness, European Commissioner for financial services, financial stability and Capital Markets Union and Mr Pascal Canfin, Member of the European Parliament, on sustainable finance – teleconference	Political
2021-06-30	Frank Elderson	Central Banks and Supervisors NGFS Steering Committee meeting – teleconference	Media and other
2021-07-01	Frank Elderson	Meeting with Mr Erik Thedéen, Director General of Finansinspektionen (FI) and Chair of the Task Force on Sustainable Finance within the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), on ongoing cooperation between the Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS) and IOSCO and future priorities – teleconference	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2021-07-01	Frank Elderson	Meeting with Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Mr Paul Hilbers, and high-level representatives of De Nederlandsche Bank, on climate change – teleconference	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2021-07-09	Frank Elderson	Meeting with Spanish Banking Association (AEB), on the European sustainable growth agenda – teleconference	Finance and business
2021-07-09	Christine Lagarde	Meeting with UN Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance, Mr Mark Carney, on climate change issues	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2021-07-11	Fabio Panetta	G20 Venice Conference on Climate	Political
2021-07-28	Frank Elderson	NGFS plenary meeting, on potential NGFS contribution in the context of COP26 – teleconference	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2021-08-26	Isabel Schnabel	Meeting with Alliance 90/The Greens (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen), Ms Lisa Paus, Mr Klaus Seipp and other Bündnis 90/Die Grünen Members of the German Bundestag, on the outcome of the ECB’s strategy review	Political
2021-08-31	Christine Lagarde	Meeting with former Vice President of the United States, Mr Al Gore, on the latest climate change issues – teleconference	Political
2021-08-31	Christine Lagarde	Meeting with Vice-President of the European Investment Bank, Mr Ambroise Fayolle, on the latest climate change issues – teleconference	Finance and business
2021-09-01	Christine Lagarde	European Investment Bank (EIB) Group Climate and Environment Advisory Council meeting	Finance and business
2021-09-01	Frank Elderson	Meeting with Goethe University Frankfurt, on central banks and sustainability – teleconference	Academia and civil society
2021-09-02	Frank Elderson	Meeting with Mr Frank Goldsmith, UK Minister for Pacific and the Environment, on preparations for the COP26 conference – teleconference	Political
2021-09-13	Frank Elderson	Meeting with Governor of the Banque de France, Mr François Villeroy de Galhau, and Managing Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, Mr Ravi Menon, on climate-related issues – teleconference	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2021-09-14	Edouard Fernandez-Bollo	Meeting with SMBC Bank International, on the supervisory environment – teleconference	Finance and business
2021-09-17	Frank Elderson	Meeting with Governor of the Bank of Mauritius, Mr Harvesh Seegolam, on the launch of the Bank of Mauritius’ Climate Change Centre – teleconference	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2021-09-17	Isabel Schnabel	Meeting with Bank of Canada, Deputy Governor, Mr Toni Gravelle, Advisor to the Governor, Ms Sheryl King and Managing Director, Financial Markets Department, Mr Grahame Johnson, on climate change-related issues and economic and financial developments – teleconference	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2021-09-17	Christine Lagarde	Meeting with London Business School, on issues relating to sustainability reporting – teleconference	Academia and civil society
2021-09-22	Luis de Guindos	Pre-recorded episode of The ECB Podcast, on “Time to act now: results of the economy-wide climate stress test”	Media and other
2021-10-04	Frank Elderson	Meeting with Member of the European Parliament, Mr Pascal Canfin, on climate-related issues – teleconference	Political
2021-10-11	Andrea Enria	Participation in European Banking Federation (EBF) CEO roundtable on supervisory and regulatory issues, including ESG risks, the post-pandemic credit risk outlook, Basel III reforms, Pillar 2 disclosures and post-Brexit relocation of central clearing services – teleconference	Finance and business
2021-10-14	Andrea Enria	Hearing before the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) of the European Parliament – introductory statement via teleconference on bank resilience and risk outlook, digitalisation, climate change, and the European regulatory framework and the banking union	Political
2021-10-20	Philip R. Lane	Meeting with Mr Mark Carney, UN Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance, on the outcome of the ECB’s strategy review – teleconference	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2021-10-27	Isabel Schnabel	Meeting with NYU Stern, on climate stress tests	Academia and civil society
2021-10-28	Andrea Enria	Meeting with Board members of the European Association of Co-operative Banks (EACB), on supervisory and regulatory issues, including climate risk, Basel III implementation, IT developments and data requirements, fit and proper requirements and market integration developments – teleconference	Finance and business
2021-11-03	Frank Elderson	Meeting with Trustee of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Foundation, Ms Lucrezia Reichlin, on climate- related issues	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2021-11-03	Frank Elderson	Meeting with State Secretary at German Ministry of Finance, Mr Jörg Kukies, on climate-related issues	Political
2021-11-15	Edouard Fernandez-Bollo	Meeting with Mizuho Bank, on environmental risk management – teleconference	Finance and business
2021-11-26	Frank Elderson	NGFS Steering Committee meeting – teleconference	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2021-11-30	Christine Lagarde	G7 Central Bank Governors virtual meeting on diversity and inclusion and climate change	Political
2021-12-06	Frank Elderson	NGFS plenary, regional outreach session with members from the Asia and Pacific region – discussion on the future NGFS work programme – teleconference	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2021-12-08	Frank Elderson	NGFS plenary, regional outreach session with members from the Americas – discussion on the future NGFS work programme – teleconference	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2021-12-09	Isabel Schnabel	Meeting with KfW Group, Ms Friederike Köhler-Geib, Chief Economist, on green transition – teleconference	Finance and business
2021-12-09	Frank Elderson	Meeting in capacity as NGFS Chair with the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ), Mr Mark Carney, Co-Chair, and Ms Mary Schapiro, Vice Chair, on climate-related issues – teleconference	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2021-12-10	Frank Elderson	Meeting with Mr Paul Tang, Member of European Parliament, on climate-related issues and diversity – teleconference	Political
2021-12-10	Andrea Enria	Meeting with Association of Cyprus Banks (ACB), on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outlook for the banking sector, supervision of environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks, banks’ profitability and banking union – teleconference	Finance and business
2021-12-10	Frank Elderson	NGFS plenary, regional outreach session with members from Europe – discussion on the future NGFS work programme – teleconference	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2021-12-13	Andrea Enria	Meeting with Dutch Banking Association and bank CEOs, on the COVID-19 outlook for the banking sector, supervision of ESG risks, macroprudential policy and banking union – teleconference	Finance and business
2021-12-13	Frank Elderson	NGFS plenary, outreach session – presentation of the Guide on climate-related disclosure for central banks – teleconference	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2021-12-21	Christine Lagarde	Meeting with Amundi, on climate change issues – teleconference	Finance and business
2021-12-22	Frank Elderson	NGFS Steering Committee meeting – teleconference	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2022-01-06	Frank Elderson	Meeting with Bank of America, on issues related to climate risk management for financial institutions – teleconference	Finance and business
2022-01-14	Frank Elderson	Meeting with the European Climate Foundation (ECF), on sustainable finance – teleconference	Academia and civil society
2022-01-25	Frank Elderson	Meeting with Member of the European Parliament, Mr Pascal Canfin, on climate-related and environmental issues – teleconference	Political
2022-01-27	Frank Elderson	Meeting with the European Commissioner for Financial Services, Financial Stability and Capital Markets Union, Ms Mairead McGuinness, on regulatory and supervisory issues and sustainable finance	Political
2022-01-31	Edouard Fernandez-Bollo	Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) and Financial Stability Institute (FSI) of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) high-level meeting for Africa, hosted by the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) – participation in panel on “Business model sustainability – challenges and practices for supervisory assessment” – teleconference	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2022-02-07	Frank Elderson	Meeting with Managing Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, Mr Ravi Menon, on issues related to the Network of Central Banks and Supervisors for Greening the Financial System (NGFS) – teleconference	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2022-02-25	Philip R. Lane	Meeting with International Energy Agency, Mr Tim Gould, on issues related to energy policy and climate change	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2022-03-01	Andrea Enria	Meeting with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) and Afore Consulting, on ongoing initiatives on environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks and the European Commission’s proposal on third-country branches	Finance and business
2022-03-07	Frank Elderson	Network of Central Banks and Supervisors for Greening the Financial System (NGFS) Steering Committee meeting – teleconference	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2022-03-18	Isabel Schnabel	Meeting with Ms Katharina Dröge, Parliamentary Party Leader of Alliance 90/The Greens (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen); Mr Matthias Kalkuhl, MCC Berlin; PIK; Bündnis 90/Die Grünen Members of the German Bundestag; and Greenpeace, on inflation – teleconference	Political
2022-03-24	Isabel Schnabel	Meeting with German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, Mr Sven Giegold, State Secretary, on economic and financial developments	Political
2022-04-08	Frank Elderson	Meeting with Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Mr Paul Hilbers, and high-level representatives of the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA), on climate-related issues – teleconference	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2022-04-12	Andrea Enria	Meeting with European Banking Authority (EBA), Mr José Manuel Campa, Chairperson, Mr François-Louis Michaud, Executive Director, and Ms Isabelle Vaillant, Director of Prudential Regulation and Supervisory Policy, on the impact of the war in Ukraine on the banking sector, including bank resolution cases, update on legislative proposals on environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks, 2023 EU-wide stress tests, recovery planning and cooperation to share data – teleconference	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2022-04-20	Frank Elderson	Meeting with European Banking Federation (EBF), on environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks and stress testing – teleconference	Finance and business
2022-04-21	Frank Elderson	Meeting with Queen Mary University of London, on the role of the law in the transition to sustainable finance – teleconference	Academia and civil society
2022-05-05	Frank Elderson	Meeting with Chair of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), Ms Verena Ross, on environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks and market infrastructures	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2022-05-05	Isabel Schnabel	Meeting with Mr Lucas Guttenberg, German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, on economic and financial developments – teleconference	Political
2022-05-06	Luis de Guindos	Meeting of Central Bank Governors of the Center for Latin American Monetary Studies (CEMLA) – speech on challenges to financial stability in the current environment	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2022-05-10	Andrea Enria	Meeting with Bank Association of Slovenia (ZBS), on the effects of the Russia-Ukraine war on the European banking sector and the impact on credit risk, macroprudential requirements, anti-money laundering and climate and environmental risks	Finance and business
2022-05-11	Frank Elderson	Meeting with Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, Mr Frans Timmermans, on climate-related and environmental issues and recent economic developments	Political
2022-05-11	Frank Elderson	Meeting with Member of the European Parliament, Mr Ville Niinistö, on current supervisory and regulatory developments and ESG risks	Political
2022-05-11	Frank Elderson	Institute of International Finance (IIF) European Summit – “In conversation” discussion with Mr Tim Adams, IIF President and CEO, on the effects of Russia’s war in Ukraine, the EU economy and the inclusion of climate change considerations in monetary policy and banking supervision	Finance and business
2022-05-24	Frank Elderson	Meeting with Vice Chair of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ), Ms Mary Schapiro, on financial institutions’ climate transition plans – teleconference	Academia and civil society
2022-06-09	Andrea Enria	Meeting with Spanish banks and the Spanish Banking Association (AEB), on the euro area economic outlook, supervisory issues, implications of crypto-assets for financial stability, climate risk and the banking sector, and digitalisation	Finance and business
2022-06-13	Andrea Enria	Participation in European Banking Federation (EBF) CEO roundtable on supervisory and regulatory issues, including the effects of the war in Ukraine, climate change, leveraged finance and completion of the banking union – teleconference	Finance and business
2022-06-23	Philip R. Lane	Meeting with Member of the European Parliament, Mr Seán Kelly, on issues related to climate change – teleconference	Political
2022-06-23	Frank Elderson	Meeting with Chair of the Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS) workstream on supervision, Mr James Hubbs, and Co-Chair of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision Task Force on Climate-related Financial Risks, Mr Kevin Stiroh, on climate transition plans – teleconference	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2022-06-26	Christine Lagarde	Meeting with Managing Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore and Chair of the NGFS, Mr Ravi Menon, on the role of the NGFS	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2022-06-29	Edouard Fernandez-Bollo	Meeting with Bank Policy Institute, on desk-mapping review, intermediate EU parent undertakings, third-country bank branches and climate risk management/scenario analysis	Academia and civil society
2022-06-30	Andrea Enria	Hearing before the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) of the European Parliament – introductory statement on banks’ profitability in an unpredictable environment, supervisory priorities in times of uncertainty and the reform agenda	Political
2022-07-04	Christine Lagarde	European Investment Bank (EIB) Group Climate and Environment Advisory Council meeting	Finance and business
2022-07-09	Isabel Schnabel	Meeting with German Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, Mr Sven Giegold, State Secretary, on economic and financial developments – teleconference	Political
2022-07-09	Frank Elderson	Pre-recorded episode of The ECB Podcast, on “Greening the financial system: milestones in our climate change journey”	Media and other
2022-07-11	Frank Elderson	Meeting with Club of Rome, on sustainable finance – teleconference	Academia and civil society
2022-07-14	Frank Elderson	Meeting with Executive Director for Climate Finance at the European Climate Foundation, Ms Emma Navarro, on green finance – teleconference	Academia and civil society
2022-07-14	Frank Elderson	Meeting with Eindhoven University of Technology, on the system- wide transition to green finance	Academia and civil society
2022-07-19	Elizabeth McCaul	Meeting with Program on International Financial Systems (PIFS) at Harvard Law School, on the current financial sector environment – teleconference	Academia and civil society
2022-07-27	Frank Elderson	Meeting with European University Institute (EUI), on climate and finance – teleconference	Academia and civil society
2022-08-25	Andrea Enria	Meeting with Mr Franz Rudorfer, Managing Director of the Bank and Insurance Division of the Austrian Economic Chambers (WKÖ), on the risk outlook for the banking sector, climate-related and environmental risks, anti-money laundering reforms and Basel III implementation	Finance and business
2022-08-29	Frank Elderson	Meeting with Member of the European Parliament, Mr Rasmus Andresen, on climate change, financial stability and banking supervision	Political
2022-08-29	Isabel Schnabel	Meeting with Member of the European Parliament, Mr Rasmus Andresen, on economic and financial developments and climate change	Political
2022-08-31	Andrea Enria	Meeting with Spanish Banking Association (AEB), on the risk outlook for the banking sector, climate-related and environmental risks, regulatory developments regarding Basel III and crypto- assets, digital transformation and Spain’s proposed levy on bank profits – teleconference	Finance and business
2022-09-07	Elizabeth McCaul	Meeting with Finance Watch, on sustainability risk	Academia and civil society
2022-09-07	Kerstin af Jochnick	Meeting with Finance Watch, on sustainability risk	Academia and civil society
2022-09-07	Andrea Enria	Meeting with European Banking Federation (EBF), on a sustainable finance strategy – teleconference	Finance and business
2022-09-07	Kerstin af Jochnick	Meeting with Nordea, on the ECB’s stance on the European Commission’s banking package and climate risk and general supervisory issues	Finance and business
2022-09-07	Edouard Fernandez-Bollo	Meeting with ING, on the ECB’s stance on the European Commission’s banking package and climate risk and general supervisory issues	Finance and business
2022-09-07	Edouard Fernandez-Bollo	Meeting with Groupe BPCE, on the ECB’s stance on the European Commission’s banking package and climate risk and general supervisory issues	Finance and business
2022-09-07	Edouard Fernandez-Bollo	Meeting with BNP Paribas, on the ECB’s stance on the European Commission’s banking package and climate risk and general supervisory issues	Finance and business
2022-09-07	Edouard Fernandez-Bollo	Meeting with Mazars, on ECB/Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) priorities, climate stress tests, implementation of Basel III and current regulatory topics (crisis management frameworks, regulation of crypto-assets and prudential treatment of climate risk)	Finance and business
2022-09-08	Edouard Fernandez-Bollo	Meeting with La Banque Postale, on the ECB’s stance on the European Commission’s banking package and climate risk and general supervisory issues	Finance and business
2022-09-08	Edouard Fernandez-Bollo	Meeting with Goldman Sachs, on the ECB’s stance on the European Commission’s banking package and climate risk and	Finance and business
2022-09-08	Edouard Fernandez-Bollo	Meeting with UniCredit, on the ECB’s stance on the European Commission’s banking package and climate risk and general supervisory issues	Finance and business
2022-09-08	Edouard Fernandez-Bollo	Meeting with Santander, on the ECB’s stance on the European Commission’s banking package and climate risk and general supervisory issues	Finance and business
2022-09-08	Edouard Fernandez-Bollo	Meeting with JP Morgan, on the ECB’s stance on the European Commission’s banking package and climate risk and general supervisory issues	Finance and business
2022-09-08	Edouard Fernandez-Bollo	Meeting with HSBC, on the ECB’s stance on the European Commission’s banking package and climate risk and general supervisory issues	Finance and business
2022-09-08	Edouard Fernandez-Bollo	Meeting with Crédit Agricole, on the ECB’s stance on the European Commission’s banking package and climate risk and general supervisory issues	Finance and business
2022-09-08	Edouard Fernandez-Bollo	Meeting with BBVA, on the ECB’s stance on the European Commission’s banking package and climate risk and general supervisory issues	Finance and business
2022-09-08	Edouard Fernandez-Bollo	Meeting with Federated Hermes, on priorities and global regulatory developments regarding regulated investment funds, financial stability, and the practical aspects of environmental, social and governance (ESG) integration	Finance and business
2022-09-08	Frank Elderson	Meeting with Deputy Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Mr Arthur Yuen, on the supervision of climate-related risks and the regulation of crypto-assets	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2022-09-09	Frank Elderson	Meeting with Board Member of the Single Resolution Board (SRB), Mr Pedro Machado, on ECB/SRB cooperation, the ECB’s 2022 climate risk stress test and other topical issues related to banking supervision	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2022-09-09	Edouard Fernandez-Bollo	Meeting with Bank of America, on the ECB’s stance on the European Commission’s banking package and climate risk and general supervisory issues	Finance and business
2022-09-12	Anneli Tuominen	Working lunch with Chair of the IFRS Foundation Trustees, Mr Erkki Liikanen, on climate initiatives	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2022-09-12	Frank Elderson	Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS) Outreach Plenary meeting and dinner with European NGFS Members and Observers	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2022-09-13	Frank Elderson	Meeting with Chair of the NGFS, Mr Ravi Menon, on global sustainable finance issues	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2022-09-22	Frank Elderson	Meeting with Chairperson of the European Banking Authority (EBA), Mr José Manuel Campa, on the regulation and supervision of climate-related risks and anti-money laundering	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2022-09-22	Edouard Fernandez-Bollo	Meeting with Italian Banking Association (ABI), on the ECB’s thematic review on climate-related and environmental risks, the newly established SREP expert advisory group, challenges for banks’ business models, the interaction between AML/CFT and governance and ongoing negotiations on the AMLA	Finance and business
2022-10-12	Andrea Enria	Meeting with US Treasury, Ms Nellie Liang, Under Secretary for Domestic Finance, and Mr Brent Neiman, Counsellor to the Secretary of the Treasury, on the risk outlook for the banking sector, developments in crypto-asset markets, Brexit-related relocation processes at US banks, and supervision of climate- related and environmental risks	Political
2022-10-25	Frank Elderson	Meeting with Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Mr Paul Hilbers, Chairperson of the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA), Ms Petra Hielkema, and Co-Chair of the Supervisory Board of the Global Center on Adaptation, Mr Feike Sijbesma, on climate-related issues – teleconference	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2022-10-27	Anneli Tuominen	Meeting with the European Banking Authority (EBA), Mr José Manuel Campa, Chairperson, Ms Meri Rimmanen, Director of Data Analytics, Reporting and Transparency, and Mr Francesco Mauro, Head of Supervisory Review, Recovery and Resolution, on the risk overview in the current environment, a possible early intervention tool, crisis management and deposit insurance, and overall recovery capacity guidelines	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2022-10-27	Anneli Tuominen	Meeting with European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), Ms Natasha Cazenave, Executive Director, Mr Evert van Walsum, Head of Department, and Ms Iliana Lani, Head of Department, on credit rating agencies and climate change risk, central counterparties (CCPs), and greenwashing	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2022-11-01	Isabel Schnabel	Meeting with German Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, Mr Sven Giegold, State Secretary, on economic and financial developments	Political
2022-11-01	Isabel Schnabel	Meeting with Member of the German Bundestag, Mr Andreas Audretsch, of Alliance 90/The Greens (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen), on economic and financial developments	Political
2022-11-09	Andrea Enria	Meeting with European Association of Co-operative Banks (EACB), on the risk outlook for European banks and the main takeaways of the 2022 Supervisory Review and Evaluation Process (SREP), including on climate risk – teleconference	Finance and business
2022-11-15	Frank Elderson	Meeting with Member of the European Parliament, Mr Pascal Canfin, on climate-related and environmental issues – teleconference	Political
2022-11-16	Fabio Panetta	Meeting of the Italian Banking Association (ABI) Executive Committee – speech on “Greener and cheaper: could the transition away from fossil fuels generate a divine coincidence?”	Finance and business
2022-11-18	Frank Elderson	Meeting with Aviva Investors, on climate-related and environmental issues – teleconference	Finance and business
2022-11-22	Anneli Tuominen	Meeting with Chair of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), Ms Verena Ross, on central counterparty (CCP) collateral requirements, non-bank financial vulnerabilities and climate-related disclosures	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2022-11-23	Andrea Enria	Meeting with Chair of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), Ms Verena Ross, on market developments and sustainability	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2022-11-25	Andrea Enria	Meeting with BBVA, BNP Paribas, Commerzbank, Crédit Agricole, Deutsche Bank, Groupe BPCE, Grupo Santander, ING, Nordea, Société Générale and Unicredit on the current risk environment, the supervisory process, internal models and climate-related and environmental risks	Finance and business
2022-11-25	Elizabeth McCaul	Meeting with BBVA, BNP Paribas, Commerzbank, Crédit Agricole, Deutsche Bank, Groupe BPCE, Grupo Santander, ING, Nordea, Société Générale and Unicredit on the current risk environment, the supervisory process, internal models and climate-related and environmental risks	Finance and business
2022-12-01	Andrea Enria	Hearing before the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) of the European Parliament – introductory statement on supervisory risk outlook, banks’ efforts to address climate change and EU banking package	Political
2022-12-02	Andrea Enria	Meeting with Risk Committee Chairs of supervised entities, on macroeconomic changes, environment, social and governance (ESG) issues, supervisory dialogue and cyber and IT risks – teleconference	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2022-12-02	Elizabeth McCaul	Meeting with Risk Committee Chairs of supervised entities, on macroeconomic changes, environment, social and governance (ESG) issues, supervisory dialogue and cyber and IT risks – teleconference	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2023-01-27	Frank Elderson	Meeting with Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Mr Paul Hilbers, Chairperson of the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA), Ms Petra Hielkema, and Co-Chair of the Supervisory Board of the Global Center on Adaptation, Mr Feike Sijbesma, on climate-related issues – teleconference	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2023-02-08	Frank Elderson	Meeting with representatives of Dutch pension funds, on sustainable finance and current economic and financial developments	Finance and business
2023-02-09	Frank Elderson	Meeting with De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek N.V., on the management and supervision of climate-related financial risks	Finance and business
2023-02-28	Anneli Tuominen	Meeting with Chairperson of the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA), Ms Petra Hielkema, on the impact of climate change on financial markets and other shared supervisory and regulatory issues	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2023-04-18	Frank Elderson	Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) Task Force on Climate-related Financial Risks	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2023-04-19	Frank Elderson	BCBS Task Force on Climate-related Financial Risks	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2023-04-20	Frank Elderson	Meeting with International Monetary Fund (IMF) Executive Director, Mr Paul Hilbers, on the latest economic and financial developments and climate-related issues	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2023-04-20	Frank Elderson	Meeting with IMF Chief Statistician, Data Officer and Director of the Statistics Department, Mr Albert Kroese, on climate-related statistics	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2023-04-20	Frank Elderson	Meeting with IMF Climate Coordinator, Ms Dora Iakova, on climate- related issues	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2023-04-20	Frank Elderson	Meeting with IMF Financial Counsellor and Director of the Monetary and Capital Markets Department, Mr Tobias Adrian, on the latest economic and financial developments and climate-related issues	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2023-04-20	Frank Elderson	Meeting with IMF First Deputy Managing Director, Ms Gita Gopinath, on the latest economic and financial developments and climate-related issues	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2023-04-20	Christine Lagarde	Meeting with students of the Institut Polytechnique de Paris, on the ongoing transformation of globalisation and the economic effects of digital technologies and global warming	Academia and civil society
2023-04-21	Frank Elderson	Meeting with Vice Chair for Supervision of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Mr Michael S. Barr, on the latest economic, financial and supervisory developments and climate- related issues	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2023-04-24	Christine Lagarde	European Investment Bank (EIB) Group Climate and Environment Advisory Council meeting	Finance and business
2023-05-15	Frank Elderson	Meeting with Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ), on the ECB’s supervisory measures regarding the management of climate-related risks	Finance and business
2023-05-16	Frank Elderson	Meeting with Secretary-General of the European Council, Ms Thérèse Blanchet, on the EU’s green agenda and current regulatory affairs	Political
2023-05-16	Frank Elderson	Meeting with Member of the European Parliament, Mr Philippe Lamberts, on sustainable finance and regulatory issues	Political
2023-05-17	Frank Elderson	Meeting with Permanent Representative of France to the European Union, Mr Philippe Léglise-Costa, on the EU’s green agenda and the European banking union	Political
2023-05-17	Frank Elderson	Meeting with European Commissioner, Ms Mairead McGuinness, on sustainable finance, current regulatory affairs and the European banking union	Political
2023-05-19	Frank Elderson	Meeting with Paulussen Advocaten, on sustainable finance	Finance and business
2023-05-23	Christine Lagarde	Meeting with International Monetary Fund (IMF) Assistant Director, Mr Ralph Chami, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, and Coral Research and Development Accelerator Platform, on climate change issues	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2023-05-25	Frank Elderson	Meeting with Chair of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), Ms Verena Ross, on sustainable finance and recent developments in the financial sector	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2023-06-01	Frank Elderson	Meeting with Nottingham Business School, on sustainable finance – teleconference	Academia and civil society
2023-06-13	Elizabeth McCaul	Meeting with Federal Reserve Board, Mr Art Lindo and Ms Kavita Jain, and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Ms Grovetta Gardineer and Mr Kevin Greenfield, on digitalisation and bank-fintech relationships – teleconference	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2023-06-26	Elizabeth McCaul	Meeting with Oliver Wyman, on the current risk environment	Finance and business
2023-07-07	Andrea Enria	Meeting with Bank Association of Slovenia (ZBS), on risk and profitability outlook, ESG risks, banking consolidation and lessons from the March 2023 US regional banks turmoil	Finance and business
2023-07-13	Frank Elderson	Meeting with International Monetary Fund (IMF), Mr David Lukáš Rozumek, Senior Financial Sector Expert, on climate-related financial risks – teleconference	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2023-07-18	Frank Elderson	Meeting with the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), on climate-related risks – teleconference	Academia and civil society
2023-08-10	Isabel Schnabel	Meeting with Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) on climate and weather-related developments – teleconference	Academia and civil society
2023-08-23	Frank Elderson	Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) Task Force on Climate-related Financial Risks – teleconference	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2023-09-06	Andrea Enria	Meeting with Risk Committee Chairs of supervised entities, on liquidity and funding risk, stress tests, risk outlook for euro area banks, environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks and other non-financial risks – teleconference	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2023-09-06	Elizabeth McCaul	Meeting with Risk Committee Chairs of supervised entities, on liquidity and funding risk, stress tests, risk outlook for euro area banks, environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks and other non-financial risks – teleconference	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2023-09-06	Frank Elderson	Meeting with the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Foundation, on the recently published ISSB S1 and S2 standards and the ISSB agenda	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2023-09-11	Frank Elderson	Academic interview with Johns Hopkins University, for a research project on sustainable monetary policy – teleconference	Academia and civil society
2023-09-14	Elizabeth McCaul	Meeting with Finance Watch, on sustainability risks in the banking sector	Academia and civil society
2023-09-14	Edouard Fernandez-Bollo	Meeting with Nordea, on the European environmental, social and governance (ESG) framework and the SREP	Finance and business
2023-09-14	Edouard Fernandez-Bollo	Meeting with BNP Paribas, on a digital euro, the CMDI proposal and the green transition	Finance and business
2023-09-15	Edouard Fernandez-Bollo	Meeting with Spanish Banking Association (AEB), on the CMDI proposal, a digital euro, sustainability and the next legislative mandate	Finance and business
2023-09-29	Christine Lagarde	Meeting with European Climate Foundation (ECF), on climate change issues	Academia and civil society
2023-10-04	Frank Elderson	Meeting with Chair of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), Mr Emmanuel Faber, on regulatory issues – teleconference	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2023-10-04	Frank Elderson	Meeting with University of Amsterdam, on the Network for Greening the Financial System	Academia and civil society
2023-10-10	Andrea Enria	Meeting with European Banking Authority (EBA), Mr José Manuel Campa, Chairperson, Mr François-Louis Michaud, Executive Director, and Ms Isabelle Vaillant, Director of Prudential Regulation and Supervisory Policy, on regulatory and supervisory issues of common interest (including the Banking Package, the Supervisory Review and Evaluation Process (SREP), the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), the Agreement on Markets in Crypto- assets (MICA), climate and environmental risks and prudential reporting requirements) – teleconference	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2023-10-12	Andrea Enria	Meeting with Dutch credit institutions and Nederlandse Vereniging van Banken (NVB), on the review of the SREP, climate and environmental risks and liquidity and credit risks	Finance and business
2023-10-12	Christine Lagarde	Meeting with Governor of People's Bank of China (PBOC), Mr Pan Gongsheng, on global economy, finance, cooperation between the two banks and green finance	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2023-10-16	Christine Lagarde	Meeting of European Investment Bank (EIB) Group Climate and Environment Advisory Council, on the latest climate and environmental developments	Finance and business
2023-10-16	Elizabeth McCaul	Meeting with Google Cloud, on the exchange on climate datasets – teleconference	Finance and business

You can indeed still spot a few false negatives (that’s why I think we really need to manually screen all these entries carefully). For instance, Schnabel’s 2019-06-28 “Visit by the Eleventh Civil Panel of the German Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof – BGH)” was taken because the German word includes “ESG”.

Total meetings: 237

Date range: 2017-04-04 to 2023-10-16

Visualizations

1. Weight of the different actors

Actor categories were created by consolidating the original \(actor_type_1\) variable from the ECB diaries into five broader analytical groups:

• “Central banks, supervisors and IOs” combines agencies, central banks, and supervisory/regulatory authorities.
• “Academia and civil society” groups academic institutions and civil society organizations together.
• “Finance and business” includes actors originally coded as Finance or Consulting & Business, plus any meetings where actor_type_2 indicated “Private finance”.
• “Political” remains as a standalone category.
• “Media and other” captures media organizations, other actors, and any missing values.

Let’s look at what type of actor got the most out of private meetings on climate-related topics:

Central banks, supervisors, regulators and international organizations represent the biggest number of relevant entries, closely followed by Finance / Consulting / Business. Political actors and Academics / Civil society are quite far behind.

2. Distribution of meetings in time

This scatterplot shows each relevant entry as a dot, separating them depending on what type of actor got the meeting:

This tells us already a few interesting things (again, provided removing a few false positives will not change the patterns):

Politics: 44 entries, mostly (if not only) by Isabel Schnabel, Christine Lagarde and Frank Elderson. The cluster in May 2023 are due to Elderson that had in two days:

• “Meeting with Secretary-General of the European Council, Ms Thérèse Blanchet, on the EU’s green agenda and current regulatory affairs
• “Meeting with Member of the European Parliament, Mr Philippe Lamberts, on sustainable finance and regulatory issues
• “Meeting with Permanent Representative of France to the European Union, Mr Philippe Léglise-Costa, on the EU’s green agenda and the European banking union”
• “Meeting with European Commissioner, Ms Mairead McGuinness, on sustainable finance, current regulatory affairs and the European banking union”

Media: not much there. For the annecdote, the meeting just before the release of the climate action plan is Frank Elderson, for a “Pre-recorded episode of The ECB Podcast, on “Greening the financial system: milestones in our climate change journey”.

Academia and Civil society: Not much to say. The group of meetings in July 2022 are with academics, if you wondered.

Central banks, supervisors, IOs: Quite a lot of NGFS meetings, (some classified as regular external, some as private meetings). A lot of 1-to-1 meetings with governors from the BoE, BoJ, People’s Bank of China, but also with the Fed (Mary Daly, Lael Brainard). Last, but not least, a significant number of meetings with other EU supervisors (ESMA, EBA). The big chunk of meetings in 2023 are with IMF about climate-related data and statistics.

Finance: I finish by this one, since most of the interesting nuggets are there.

• Around the climate action plan (2021): On June 25th, two weeks before the official release of the climate action plan), Andrea Enria and Frank Elderson accept a meeting with the French Banking Federation (lobbying organization). The meeting is described as “on supervisory and climate risk stress test topics” ; or as “on the economic and credit outlook in the banking union and France, supervisory issues concerning internal models, the 2021 stress test and 2022 climate risk stress test”. The Spanish Banking Association (AEB) gets a similar meeting, but only on the 2021-07-09
• Around the 2022 QE tilting: Two meetings ahead of the decision, given by Enria in June: one with Spanish banks and the Spanish Banking Association (AEB), “on the euro area economic outlook, supervisory issues, implications of crypto-assets for financial stability, climate risk and the banking sector, and digitalisation”. The other is a “Participation in European Banking Federation (EBF) CEO roundtable on supervisory and regulatory issues, including the effects of the war in Ukraine, climate change, leveraged finance and completion of the banking union – teleconference”. This time, since Elderson is not present, I don’t know to what extent Enria has the information - QE is monetary policy, not supervision.
• There’s also a LOT of meetings in two days in September 2022, mainly with private finance, involving members of the Supervisory Board

Date	Board Member	Meeting Description	Actor Category
2022-09-07	Elizabeth McCaul	Meeting with Finance Watch, on sustainability risk	Academia and civil society
2022-09-07	Kerstin af Jochnick	Meeting with Finance Watch, on sustainability risk	Academia and civil society
2022-09-07	Andrea Enria	Meeting with European Banking Federation (EBF), on a sustainable finance strategy – teleconference	Finance and business
2022-09-07	Kerstin af Jochnick	Meeting with Nordea, on the ECB’s stance on the European Commission’s banking package and climate risk and general supervisory issues	Finance and business
2022-09-07	Edouard Fernandez-Bollo	Meeting with ING, on the ECB’s stance on the European Commission’s banking package and climate risk and general supervisory issues	Finance and business
2022-09-07	Edouard Fernandez-Bollo	Meeting with Groupe BPCE, on the ECB’s stance on the European Commission’s banking package and climate risk and general supervisory issues	Finance and business
2022-09-07	Edouard Fernandez-Bollo	Meeting with BNP Paribas, on the ECB’s stance on the European Commission’s banking package and climate risk and general supervisory issues	Finance and business
2022-09-07	Edouard Fernandez-Bollo	Meeting with Mazars, on ECB/Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) priorities, climate stress tests, implementation of Basel III and current regulatory topics (crisis management frameworks, regulation of crypto-assets and prudential treatment of climate risk)	Finance and business
2022-09-08	Edouard Fernandez-Bollo	Meeting with La Banque Postale, on the ECB’s stance on the European Commission’s banking package and climate risk and general supervisory issues	Finance and business
2022-09-08	Edouard Fernandez-Bollo	Meeting with Goldman Sachs, on the ECB’s stance on the European Commission’s banking package and climate risk and	Finance and business
2022-09-08	Edouard Fernandez-Bollo	Meeting with UniCredit, on the ECB’s stance on the European Commission’s banking package and climate risk and general supervisory issues	Finance and business
2022-09-08	Edouard Fernandez-Bollo	Meeting with Santander, on the ECB’s stance on the European Commission’s banking package and climate risk and general supervisory issues	Finance and business
2022-09-08	Edouard Fernandez-Bollo	Meeting with JP Morgan, on the ECB’s stance on the European Commission’s banking package and climate risk and general supervisory issues	Finance and business
2022-09-08	Edouard Fernandez-Bollo	Meeting with HSBC, on the ECB’s stance on the European Commission’s banking package and climate risk and general supervisory issues	Finance and business
2022-09-08	Edouard Fernandez-Bollo	Meeting with Crédit Agricole, on the ECB’s stance on the European Commission’s banking package and climate risk and general supervisory issues	Finance and business
2022-09-08	Edouard Fernandez-Bollo	Meeting with BBVA, on the ECB’s stance on the European Commission’s banking package and climate risk and general supervisory issues	Finance and business
2022-09-08	Edouard Fernandez-Bollo	Meeting with Federated Hermes, on priorities and global regulatory developments regarding regulated investment funds, financial stability, and the practical aspects of environmental, social and governance (ESG) integration	Finance and business
2022-09-08	Frank Elderson	Meeting with Deputy Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Mr Arthur Yuen, on the supervision of climate-related risks and the regulation of crypto-assets	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2022-09-09	Frank Elderson	Meeting with Board Member of the Single Resolution Board (SRB), Mr Pedro Machado, on ECB/SRB cooperation, the ECB’s 2022 climate risk stress test and other topical issues related to banking supervision	Central banks, supervisors and IOs
2022-09-09	Edouard Fernandez-Bollo	Meeting with Bank of America, on the ECB’s stance on the European Commission’s banking package and climate risk and general supervisory issues	Finance and business

This is just before November 2, 2022 (2 months later), when the ECB published the results of its thematic review on climate risks and set hard deadlines for banks to meet all supervisory expectations by end of 2024. This could be to gather last inputs before fine-tuning the details ahead of announcement.

Or, given these meetings’ descriptions, it may more likely be about the European Commission’s banking package (Basel III implementation) which was actively debated in the EU Parliament and Council. A blog post by Diane Fromage here develops on this. It seems like these deliberations included discussions on a brown penalizing factor, which may explain why the offensive by lobbying groups, was so strong, perhaps attempting to involve the ECB in pushing back against such measures.

Of course, this is all speculation and would require further investigation! But I think if we did want to investigate something causal about financial actors and access to private information / lobbying, we cannot really ignore this big cluster of meetings.

---

3. Who are the climate entrepreneurs?

Let’s now see who accepts climate related meetings in both boards.

Consistent with Deyris (2023), one can see that in the excutive board, the three “green doves” that entered in 2019/2020 (Lagarde, Schnabel and Elderson) basically give all climate-related meetings. Enria and Fernandez-Bollo nonetheless represent a large number of entries as well!

Shown semester by semester:

Rather than aggregating all meetings by semester, we can also plot in the same fashion each meeting as a dot, using the same color scheme as before for the type of actors, but allocating them by ECB technocrat:

Things are not super duper clear this way, and I am not sure this vizualisation gives a lot of interesting insights. Nonetheless:

• Schnabel met a lot of academics before the 2021 climate action plan, and a lot of politicians after. To a lesser extent, the same is true for Philip Lane.

• Elderson gives just so many meetings that it’s difficult to know what happens!

• Academics are back in town in 2023.

• Finance is really mainly meeting supervisory board members, whose meetings are really geared towards these actors (very few academics or politicians)

  • That said, the October 2019 meeting with four ECB Executive Board members is quite interesting. It was a “Meeting with European Financial Services Round Table (EFR), on sustainable finance”,

5. Aggregate meetings around our events

Let’s now group meetings together, aggregating them by category of actors on 6-month windows. The cool feature of (most) ECB announcements about climate is that they happen in early July, allowing us to use classical semester rather than centering around events with potential overlaps of certain months as the before- or after-context of different policy shocks.

Our anticipated “scissor effect”, with academics/civil society having more meetings before the climate action plan (gathering information, consulting “neutral” specialists) and private finance more after (explaining the decision), is there in 2021. However, it is no longer present for the subsequent 2022 and 2023 decisions. For the 2022 green tilting, there’s indeed a big spike of meetings after, but as explained above, this has probably more to do with supervision (and in fact, to regulation, so to something outside of the ECB prerogatives) than about the green tilting of the QE.

In any case, this calls for caution for our research design, whether we decide to pursue this idea or another: a manual review of each and every of these meetings is warranted. These are not so many, so it’s easy, and it will avoid having an overly deductivist approach projecting wrong interpretation on data that may be driven by other factors / events.

Perhaps another interesting insight from this figure is the rise and fall of political meetings. I don’t have any hypothesis on that, thoughts welcome!

Conclusion:

To summarize, I am not so sure our initial hypothesis—that the ECB would consult experts before key climate policy decisions and then explain to financial actors after— will work, for two main reasons.

First, the identification challenges are more severe than anticipated. ECB climate policy evolved through numerous, cumulative decisions rather than discrete regulatory shocks. This makes it difficult to cleanly separate “before” and “after” periods. Moreover, it appears that our period of interest includes other climate-related regulatory events (or anticipation of such regulations), which although they are not even ECB-driven, may account for much of the variation in meeting patterns. See above the negotiations around the European Commission’s banking package (Basel III implementation) in September 2022.

Second, it appears there is a division of labor between the two boards that contradicts the consultation-explanation narrative. Academics, civil society, and politicians meet mainly with Executive Board members, while private financial actors meet predominantly with Supervisory Board members. This systematic separation by board suggests that engagement patterns reflect ongoing institutional responsibilities rather than a temporal logic of “input gathering before decisions, communication after decisions.” In other words, different boards have standing relationships with different stakeholder groups, regardless of the policy calendar.

I don’t think it’s the end of the game; but I’d be curious to know what you think, and if other ideas come to mind.

References

Deyris, Jérôme. 2023. “Too Green to Be True? Forging a Climate Consensus at the European Central Bank.” New Political Economy 28 (5): 713–30. https://doi.org/10.1080/13563467.2022.2162869.

Footnotes

1. I retained meetings coded as “regular” because some may have been miscoded. For instance, two meetings titled “Meeting with Risk Committee Chairs of supervised entities, on liquidity and funding risk, stress tests, risk outlook for euro area banks, environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks and other non-financial risks” appear substantively relevant despite their “Event” coding.