DNB President warns Paris climate goals are nearly unachievable

Olaf Sleijpen, president of De Nederlandsche Bank and chair of the Network for Greening the Financial System, has warned that the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius under the Paris Agreement is nearly impossible to achieve. Speaking at the Green Swan conference in Manila, Sleijpen stated that scientific research indicates the remaining carbon budget for this target is almost exhausted, making it highly likely that the 1.5-degree threshold will be exceeded within the next decade.

Sleijpen noted that humanity has already crossed seven of the nine critical planetary boundaries, including ocean acidification, placing the Earth outside its stable functional zone. He highlighted the increasing economic toll of climate change, noting that reinsurers estimate direct global damages from weather-related events averaged $384 billion annually over the last five years—more than double the average at the start of the century.

He emphasized that while an ideal environmental outcome may no longer be possible, governments must act quickly to accelerate the transition to renewable energy to avoid an unmanageable global catastrophe. Moving away from fossil fuels is presented as a way to make economies less vulnerable to energy price fluctuations and to choose a future that remains manageable rather than one that becomes increasingly dangerous.