The first phase of RBI’s climate repository will focus on granular physical risks such as floods, cyclones and droughts, with transition risk to follow, three people aware of the development told ETBFSI and that translating climate data into financial risk remains complex, with banks and corporates themselves still building the asset level data and systems needed to assess their vulnerabilities. In its annual report for FY26, RBI had said that the repository is in advanced stages of completion.Nearly two years after announcing the Reserve Bank-Climate Risk Information System (RB-CRIS), the Reserve Bank of India is nearing operationalisation of the first phase of the climate data repository, with the physical risk module expected to be rolled out before the more complex transition risk component.
Three people who have participated in separate RBI discussions on climate risk over the past year told ETBFSI that RBI has consistently maintained that the repository will be rolled out in phases, with physical risk coming first.”The physical risk repository is ready. Right from the beginning, RBI has maintained that the rollout will happen in phases, with physical risk coming before transition risk,” one person who has participated in multiple RBI consultations told ETBFSI.
RB-CRIS was first announced by then RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das in October 2024 to address the lack of standardised and reliable climate datasets. RBI had said climate information was fragmented across sources and varied in formats, frequencies and quality, making climate-risk assessment difficult for regulated entities.The repository comprises a publicly accessible directory of climate datasets and a secure portal containing processed and standardised datasets for regulated entities. The first phase is focused on physical risks such as floods, cyclones, droughts, heatwaves and extreme temperatures, while transition risk will be addressed subsequently.
A person who is working closely on RB-CRIS said the challenge is not simply collecting climate data but converting it into information that can be used for financial risk assessment, the rollout might happen in the next 2-3 months in case of no unexpected delays.The repository ultimately needs to provide data at a much more granular level than conventional climate datasets, he said.
“A bank or a financial institution will typically want to know their risk at a pinpoint level. At a pin code level. If there is a problem that might come on, say a particular asset that I am funding, say a factory. But that kind of granularity on heat or rainfall is not available,” the person quoted above said on the condition of anonymity.However, banks themselves may not yet have the asset level information required to make use of such data.
“Do banks really know what is the latitude and longitude of the asset they are funding? I will give you the data. I will give you the data of every latitude and longitude. Do you know what is the latitude and longitude of your asset in 100% of your portfolio? They don’t even know,” he said.RB-CRIS is a data repository which will assist people in doing their climate risk assessment. The problem is, people have to get ready to assess it,” he added.
Transition risk, meanwhile, will require a separate and more complex framework because it depends on economic growth, geopolitics, carbon pricing, global climate policy and trade conditions.
“There are multiple scenarios that have to be created. And in those scenarios, you will create models. So, again, as I said, not a simple straightforward thing. You just put some data, put it into a data regression equation and you will get the answer. You will not have one single answer. It will be very, very different,” he said.
The expert said climate risk could eventually feed into credit and systemic risk, particularly for long term projects.
