Olaf Sleijpen, president of De Nederlandsche Bank and new chair of the Network for Greening the Financial System. Photo: DNB
Also in the roundup: the International Maritime Organization defers its net-zero framework to yet more talks, and the Central Bank of Azerbaijan sets out its 2026 push on green bonds and ESG risk.
Sleijpen to take NGFS chair as Mauderer steps down
Olaf Sleijpen, president of De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), is set to become the new chair of the Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS) from 1 July 2026, replacing the Deutsche Bundesbank’s Sabine Mauderer who is leaving after two-and-a-half-years as chair. His nomination was endorsed unanimously by the network’s plenary on the steering committee’s advice.
Beyond DNB, Sleijpen sits on the European Central Bank’s governing council and the European Systemic Risk Board, holds a governorship at the International Monetary Fund, and since 2007 has taught European economic policy at Maastricht School of Business and Economics.
As DNB president, Sleijpen used the bank’s autumn 2025 Financial Stability Report to rank climate and nature-related risks — including the rising likelihood of a disorderly transition — as a principal threat to Dutch financial stability. And, under his leadership, the bank has pushed to embed those risks in DNB’s supervision of Dutch pension funds and insurers.
On taking the role, Sleijpen said that “[c]limate and nature risks are increasingly shaping financial and monetary stability”. He went on to say that “the key challenge is to translate this into how we assess and manage related macro-critical and micro prudential risks”.
Santa Marta puts fossil-fuel roadmaps at centre of climate finance
The inaugural International Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels wrapped up late last month, with a delegation of 57 countries backing national phase-out roadmaps, a voluntary steering committee and a follow-up in Tuvalu next year, co-hosted with Ireland.
The co‑chairs launched three workstreams on national roadmaps, finance and trade, and dialogue between producers, importers and vulnerable states, rather than a binding phase‑out treaty.
Co-hosted by Colombia and the Netherlands amid fresh oil-price shocks after the US–Israeli attacks on Iran, the Santa Marta summit framed fossil-fuel dependence as a macro-financial vulnerability as much as a climate problem. UN climate chief Simon Stiell said the “fossil fuel cost crisis now has its foot on the throat of the global economy”, as soaring energy and food prices fed inflation and lifted sovereign debt-service costs.
Delegates also launched a new scientific panel for the global energy transition, alongside an academic pre-conference synthesis report whose “action insights” urge governments to weave fiscal policy and debt into economy-wide phase-out plans. The authors also want central banks’ financial- and price-stability mandates to be leveraged to lower the cost of capital for clean energy.
Carney leaves Canada’s 2030 climate target dangling
Canada’s pledge to slash greenhouse gas emissions to 40–45% by 2030 has suddenly become an open question after comments from the prime minister Mark Carney. Asked whether his government is still aiming to hit that number, Carney told reporters his government would “update our climate plans and our emission reduction targets in due course”, Bloomberg reports.
Pressed on whether the target itself was being scrapped, Carney pushed back. “That’s not what I said,” he replied, adding that the government was focused on “practical steps that are going to get results” rather than endless litigation with the provinces.
Hours earlier he unveiled a strategy to double the country’s electricity generation by 2050, with plans to amend the Trudeau-era clean electricity regulations to give provinces more flexibility on gas-fired generation. The shift dovetails with a draft deal between the federal government and Alberta that would lift the province’s effective industrial carbon price to C$130 (US$95) a tonne by 2040 — well short of the Trudeau government’s goal of hitting C$170 by 2030 — potentially clearing the path for a new west-coast oil pipeline.
International Maritime Organization’s net-zero framework delayed again
The world’s regulator for international shipping has failed for a second time to agree on how to make the global fleet cut its greenhouse gas emissions.
At a two-week meeting in London that wrapped up on 1 May, member states of the International Maritime Organization’s marine environment protection committee split into two camps. One side wants to adopt the draft net-zero framework broadly as written, locking in firm targets for cutting the carbon intensity of ship fuel. The other is pushing a “market readiness” approach which would soften those targets if cleaner fuels such as green ammonia or methanol are not yet available in large enough quantities to buy.
No final compromise was reached. Instead, governments agreed to hold two more technical meetings – in September and November – before the next full session, which is tentatively scheduled for late November.
Azerbaijan’s central bank sharpens 2026 sustainable finance push
The Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) has set out its 2026 priorities under its sustainable finance roadmap, targeting financial-sector resilience, climate risk management and green finance flows, according to its sustainable finance report covered by news agency Trend.
Structured around four pillars — capacity building, an ecosystem for sustainable financial flows, integration of climate and ESG factors into risk management, and transparency and market discipline — the plan will introduce an ESG guideline built on the bank’s risk radar tool, an action plan on sustainable insurance, and a legislative framework for a domestic green bond market. Greenhouse gas emissions data will also feed into the central credit registry, helping lenders factor climate exposure into credit decisions.
These plans build on Cop29 pledges in Baku, where governor Taleh Kazimov said the CBA would green 10% of its loan portfolios within six years.
Research
What do we know about sustainability reporting assurance quality?
The British Accounting Review
Drawing on five new studies, this review asks whether sustainability assurance genuinely improves what companies disclose or merely serves reputational goals after ESG controversies. The answer: both, depending on context. Independent boards, auditors who flag concrete fixes, and partners with hands-on climate expertise are what turn a tick-box exercise into substantive scrutiny.
Climate change increases bilateral trade costs through its impact on maritime shipping
Bank Underground (Bank of England staff blog)
Drawing on trade flows back to the 1820s and Berkeley Earth temperature data, Maximilian Huppertz of the Bank of England finds climate change has raised the cost of moving goods, chiefly by disrupting maritime routes. Reversing the effect of the past century’s warming would lift global GDP per capita by 1.6%, and up to 5% for the most exposed countries, with smaller open economies gaining about double the global average.
Unlocking climate risk insurance: the role of public development banks
Climate Policy Initiative
Insurance coverage against climate hazards remains thin in emerging and developing economies, leaving both smallholders and major infrastructure exposed. CPI argues public development banks can close the gap not by underwriting risk themselves but by co-developing products with private insurers, bundling cover with other financial instruments, and pooling risk regionally — provided governments and regulators move in lockstep.
This page was last updated May 26, 2026
Written by
Ike Walker, a Green Central Banking contributor since 2023, has a decade's experience in research writing. An Utrecht-based scholar, Ingrid specialises in transformative justice, green finance, law and systems change. They are an Utrecht University's Bright Minds scholar and previously worked for Cambridge University and various justice-based NGOs.
