Margarita Delgado: The role of central banks in sustainable finance

Speech by Ms Margarita Delgado, Deputy Governor of the Bank of Spain, at the 11th Funseam International Business Symposium "Sustainable Finance: challenges and opportunities", Barcelona, 6 February 2023.

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

I would like to begin by thanking Funseam for inviting me to take part in this 11th International Business Symposium on Sustainable Finance. The staging of this event and today's programme are testament to how important sustainable finance has become.

Sustainable finance is an ideal tool for undertaking the necessary economic transition and thus meeting the net zero emissions target, as borne out by the different initiatives currently being rolled out. The aim is to meet the Paris Agreement goals, namely to stop average global temperatures from rising by more than 2ºC, while also making the economy better able to adapt to the adverse impact of climate change and boosting the funding of the investments needed to support sustainable growth. Without doubt, this represents an extraordinary challenge for humanity, in all fields, in the decades to come.

The year began with the latest edition of the World Economic Forum's Global Risks Report. According to this report, the top ten risks over the next two years include natural disasters and extreme weather events (in second place) and failure to mitigate climate change (fourth). Taking a ten-year view, the four highest-ranked risks are all related to the environment. Included alongside the two already mentioned are failure of climate-change adaptation and biodiversity loss.