"FRANKFURT - Euro zone banks talking the most about climate change are the biggest lenders to polluting industries and use public relations noise to mask their support, a blog post by four economists published by the European Central Bank (ECB) said on Wednesday.

The ECB has been trying and failing for years to force lenders to disclose more of their climate risk, and has threatened to increase capital requirements if they don't.

"Banks which portray themselves as more environmentally conscious lend more than others to brown industries," the blog post argued, after matching up public disclosures with detailed lending data. "There are insufficient incentives for banks to change their lending policies."

The blog, written by an ECB economist and three academics, does not necessarily represent the views of the ECB, which supervises over a hundred of the euro zone's biggest lenders."

Balazs Koranyi reports for Reuters December 6, 2023. [2]

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