16  The voluntary network was set up by 8 central banks and supervisors in December 2017 at the One Planet Summit, and has since grown to 29 members, representing countries accounting for nearly half of global emissions, and five observers. It is a voluntary, consensus-based forum whose purpose is to share best practices, contribute to the development of climate- and environment-related risk management in the financial sector and mobilize mainstream finance to support the transition toward a sustainable economy. The analytical work is split into three work streams and the research will be published in April 2019: WS1 microprudential/supervisory; WS2 macrofinancial; and WS3 Scaling up green finance. 8  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/Pages/speeches/default.aspx  8  Regulators and market participants are collaborating to facilitate cross-border investments in green infrastructure. The European Commission’s Sustainable Finance Action Plan is developing a classification system for sustainable economic activities, a harmonised green bond standard and methodologies for lowcarbon indices.17 The three major credit rating agencies have all integrated environmental risk and green certification into credit ratings. And international organisations such as the Climate Bonds Initiative (CBI) and International Capital Markets Association (ICMA) have developed definitional frameworks, certification and validation methods for green financing.18 This work is helping the green bond market to gather pace, with issuance quadrupling from $ in 2015 to $ in 2018.19 Last year also saw inaugural sovereign green issues from five countries.20 For investors, green bond markets offer stable, rated and liquid investments with long duration.

Jean-Pierre Roth: Switzerland as an industrial location and National Bank policy Summary of a speech by Mr Jean-Pierre Roth, Chairman of the Governing Board of the Swiss National Bank, at the Europa Forum Lucerne, Lucerne, 27 October 2003. The complete speech can be found in German on the Swiss National Bank’s website (www.snb.ch). *  *  *  In a high-wage country such as Switzerland enterprises can only maintain their position in the face of international competition by a process of ongoing innovation. The resulting structural change in the direction of highly technological and increasingly productive economic sectors is also a prerequisite for strong economic growth. In an international comparison, however, Switzerland’s growth is poor. This weak perfomance in terms of growth highlights the need for action in economic policy. Monetary policy cannot, however, fulfil this role. The primary task of monetary policy is to ensure price stability. Price stability is an important locational advantage that Switzerland has to offer. Moreover, monetary policy can also contribute to stabilising the economy and warding off undesirable exchange rate shocks. It is, however, not in a position to bring about a sustained improvement in economic growth. The result of such an attempt would merely be economic overheating with the threat of a subsequent slide of the economy into recession. Lasting effects on economic growth may, by contrast, emanate from education policy, research policy, policy on foreigners and fiscal policy.