exercise market discipline by requiring financial institutions to disclose adequate information. the bank already provided funds through the operations last december and this july. at present, there are 63 eligible financial institutions, including regional ones, and the total amount outstanding of loans stands at 3. 6 trillion yen. the bank expects that the operations will continue to function as a catalyst and encourage decarbonization efforts in japan. concluding remarks let me close my remarks. during the past few years, there has been growing awareness of climate change, and a broad consensus has been established on the goal of addressing decarbonization in society as a whole. even as we face the hardship of surging energy prices, we are now entering a new phase of implementing a variety of initiatives to achieve this goal. the progress made in japan that i have mentioned today is a part of these endeavors. in order to accelerate decarbonization, all entities should play their part steadily, while keeping their eyes on the long - term goal. the bank of japan will continue to work together with financial institutions and market participants, and thereby strongly support initiatives to address climate change. thank you for your attention. 1 see " pilot scenario analysis exercise on climate - related risks based on common scenarios " ( august 2022 ) at https : / / www. boj. or. jp / en / announcements / release _ 2022 / rel220826a. htm /. 2 see " results of the first market functioning survey concerning climate change " ( august 2022 ) at https : / / www. boj. or. jp / en / research / brp / ron _ 2022 / ron220805a. htm /. 4 / 4 bis - central bankers'speeches

##itical risks and the rise in energy prices. the same can be said for japan. at the same time, through these initiatives, a number of challenges have been identified. from now on, it is important to work on these challenges and steadily make further progress toward decarbonization. 1 / 4 bis - central bankers'speeches ii. recent initiatives in japan and future challenges today, i would like to introduce three ongoing initiatives as prime examples of recent efforts in japan : ( 1 ) assessment of climate - related financial risks in a systematic manner, ( 2 ) enhancement of market functioning, and ( 3 ) support for firms'decarbonization efforts. let me also present my views on future challenges identified through these initiatives. a. assessment of climate - related financial risks in a systematic manner the first initiative is an assessment of climate - related financial risks in a systematic manner. significant progress has been made in scenario analysis, which is useful in comprehensively understanding climate - related financial risks. the network of central banks and supervisors for greening the financial system ( ngfs ) has been updating its climate scenarios every year since the first set of scenarios was released in 2020 ; it has also been working on bridging data gaps. several jurisdictions have already released the results of scenario analyses using the ngfs scenarios. in this regard, let me highlight the fact that, in line with the recommendations of the task force on climate - related financial disclosures ( tcfd ), the three major japanese banks have been disclosing the results of their own scenario analyses in their tcfd reports. this is a pioneering initiative even among global systemically important banks ( g - sibs ). in addition, the financial services agency and the bank of japan jointly conducted scenario analysis as a pilot exercise using common scenarios in cooperation with major financial institutions. 1 the objective of this exercise was to identify issues for future improvement of the analytical method rather than to make a quantitative assessment of climate - related financial risks. scenario analysis has its limitations in the level of sophistication and accuracy, as climate change and decarbonization will have a longterm and far - reaching impact on society, the economy, and on finance. the impact will also be complex and highly uncertain. recognizing such inherent uncertainties, financial institutions should carry out a comprehensive assessment of climate - related financial risks through scenario analysis, and make use of the findings in encouraging their client firms to take necessary steps to address climate change. in fact