Frank Elderson: Full disclosure - coming to grips with an inconvenient truth Keynote speech by Mr Frank Elderson, Member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank and Vice-Chair of the Supervisory Board of the ECB, at the 14th European Bank Institute Policy Webinar on the ECB’s supervisory approach on climate-related and environmental risks, Frankfurt am Main, 14 March 2022. * * * Some years ago, Andrea Enria, the Chair of the Supervisory Board, gave a speech, precisely at an EBI conference, calling for greater transparency in prudential supervision. When describing the role of transparency and information disclosure, he echoed the words of Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis: “Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman”. This couldn’t be truer for climate-related disclosures, too. As I have said before when discussing the supervision and prominence of climate-related and environmental, or C&E, risks, we can only tackle a problem once we get a good grip on its shape and size. Some information may be uncomfortable to face up to – but bringing it to light is the first step in making progress. When it comes to climate change, the information on what Al Gore famously dubbed an inconvenient truth is indeed getting bleaker by the day. The most recent IPCC report confirms the dramatic consequences of not taking immediate action: additional global warming of up to 1.5 degrees Celsius in the near term would increase climate hazards, and present numerous risks to ecosystems and human society.
BIS Review 14/2001  7  The government’s asset position and wealth management  Government assets and liabilities Estimates in billions of NOK Assets  Liabilities  Petroleum Fund National Insurance Fund  390  Direct ownership  300  Bonds and Treasury bills  170  50  Minor holdings  100  State banks  165  The table shows in simplified form the central government’s financial assets and liabilities, with estimates for the balance at the end of 2000. The government’s most important assets are the Government Petroleum Fund, assets in the National Insurance Fund, and the state’s direct ownership interests in enterprises. The estimate for the government’s direct ownership in the table includes Statoil, Norsk Hydro, Telenor, Statkraft and DnB. In addition, the state has many smaller stakes and direct loans through the state banks. The government has loan debt. In the table, the figures for the National Insurance Fund are consolidated as the Fund’s claims on the central government and the central government’s debt to the Fund are offset. The table shows that the central government’s loans through the state banks are approximately the same as the central government’s loan debt. The central government raises loans in the bond market and lends through the state banks. The interest rate on the loans and the pricing of risk are market-related. If we exclude this credit intermediation, the management of government wealth is primarily linked to state ownership interests in the Norwegian business sector, the National Insurance Fund and the Government Petroleum Fund.