De Nederlandsche Bank published a speech by Olaf Sleijpen opening the Irving Fisher Committee satellite seminar on sustainability data issues and central banks’ experience in Amsterdam, setting out how central bank statisticians can build usable sustainability and climate-risk statistics despite persistent data scarcity. The remarks link climate change and nature degradation to central banks’ and prudential supervisors’ mandates through their potential impact on financial institutions, financial stability, long-term economic development and price developments. The speech points to major data gaps stemming from the absence of global, consistent legal requirements for financial institutions to submit sustainability data and wide cross-country differences in reporting mandates. It argues for making greater use of existing and alternative sources, including payment system data, companies’ balance sheets and satellite-based tools such as the International Monetary Fund’s PortWatch platform to model climate-scenario impacts on maritime trade flows. It also highlights the need for new data science techniques to combine disparate datasets where identifiers and definitions are missing, and stresses consistent and transparent methods for collecting and storing reported, satellite, modelled or proxy data, including when combining public and commercial sources. DNB and the European Central Bank are cited as having applied nowcasting techniques to produce more timely carbon statistics for the euro area given delays in commercial emissions datasets, while noting that any scaling back of corporate sustainability reporting could increase reliance on modelled and imputed data. DNB flagged further near-term work on sustainability statistics in the Netherlands, including the International Statistical Institute World Statistics Congress starting on 6 October in The Hague and an International Working Conference on primary emissions data at the product level hosted by DNB on 13 and 14 October.
De Nederlandsche Bank 2025-10-04
De Nederlandsche Bank outlines how central banks can close sustainability data gaps using alternative sources and nowcasting
De Nederlandsche Bank published a speech by Olaf Sleijpen at the Irving Fisher Committee seminar in Amsterdam, addressing sustainability data issues and central banks' roles. The speech highlights data gaps due to inconsistent global legal requirements and suggests using alternative data sources and new data science techniques. It also notes DNB's and the European Central Bank's use of nowcasting for timely carbon statistics and flags upcoming work on sustainability statistics in the Netherlands.