Andrew Bailey: Laying the foundations for a net zero financial system

Remarks by Mr Andrew Bailey, Governor of the Bank of England, at the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26), Glasgow, Scotland, 3 November 2021.

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

Central bank speech  | 
05 November 2021

It is a great pleasure to be at COP. What struck me was the range of the agenda over the COP fortnight and how diverse this essential agenda now is – from finance to gender and innovation to youth empowerment.

This is of course not surprising, as we know that climate change is an issue that will touch each and every one of us, the way that societies operate and the way that we live our lives, particularly as we emerge from COVID.

And a microcosm of this can be seen in central banks. When we started talking about climate at the Bank of England in 2015, our work was wholly focussed on the risks to the banks and insurers that we regulate. Six years later, the agenda has touched all areas of our organisation – from the way we heat our buildings, to the way that we manage our holdings of corporate bonds for monetary policy purposes. It is included in all of our remits and embedded in all of our decision-making processes. The Bank's staff are actively involved as part of their day job or in the contribution they make to the way of life at the Bank, next week is our internal 'green week'.