Margarita Delgado: Climate change. Challenges for the financial system

Opening remarks by Ms Margarita Delgado, Deputy Governor of the Bank of Spain, at the Conference "Climate Change. Challenges for the Financial System", organized by the Bank of Spain, Madrid, 11 December 2019.

The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and not the view of the BIS.

Good morning,

Welcome to the Banco de España for this Conference, where we intend to take a look at the main challenges that climate change poses for the financial sector. The Conference takes place amid two intense weeks of the COP25, which is full of other interesting conferences and events. But I assure you that you won´t regret your decision to be with us today.

The World Meteorological Organization certified last week that 2019 will close a decade of exceptional global warming, retreating ice and record sea levels, driven by greenhouse gases from human activities. 2019 is on course to become the second or third warmest year on record.

The global average temperature in 2019 was about 1.1 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial period. The IPCC estimated that we could reach a temperature increase of 1.5oC between 2030 and 2052; but, given the latest evidence, this may actually occur sooner.