alejandro diaz de leon : climate change and its impact on the financial system remarks by mr alejandro diaz de leon, governor of bank of mexico, at the conference on climate change and its impact on the financial system, mexico city, 5 december 2019. * * * good evening everyone. on behalf of banco de mexico, i am pleased to welcome the participants of the conference on climate change and its impact on the financial system. it is a great pleasure for banco de mexico to collaborate jointly with cemla, the center for latin american monetary studies, the ngfs, network for greening the financial system, and the university of zurich in organizing this meeting. the sessions that comprise the conference cover some of the main topics in climate change and its economic and financial impact. climate change and environmental degradation constitutes a challenge at national and global levels and is a source of financial risk. climate change is presenting challenges related with extreme weather events, rising sea levels, declining productivity of agriculture and fisheries, trade and supply chain disruptions, the degrading of ecosystems, reduced welfare of communities due to air and water pollution, and even mass migrations in the territories most adversely affected. in some emerging and low - income economies, poverty, an inadequate institutional framework and a weak rule of law has created a fertile ground for a predatory behavior that has significantly degraded the environment, in some cases irreversibly, deteriorating both the welfare and development opportunities of the population affected. call for global action the growing recognition of climate change consequences is influencing the core tasks of central banks. for banco de mexico, the sound development of the financial system, one of our key objectives, requires from the central bank, not only to foster financial stability and better services for the benefit of households and corporates, but also to eradicate financing and risk management practices that avoid recognition of environmental and social negative externalities and risks. globally, the voices behind this call for action are expanding rapidly. multilateral organizations are focusing increasingly their portfolios on green and sustainable activities and several central banks are in favor of decisive action. ngfs, the network for greening the financial system, was originally set up by 8 central banks and now has 51 central banks and financial supervisors together with 12 observers. the fact that this technical expert group was just created two years ago, highlights the global commitment to address climate related risks in the financial sector. the ngfs supports an orderly transition towards a low pollution and low carbon economy by promoting best practices, improving data availability

##rsion could become exacerbated by geopolitical events. in this context, mexico ’ s fiscal stance should be fortified, and its monetary policy must continue to employ complete flexibility in order to consolidate the convergence of inflation to the permanent target, thereby shielding the economy with stronger macroeconomic fundamentals. see banco de mexico ( 2016 ). “ encuesta sobre las expectativas de los especialistas en economia del sector privado : julio de 2016, ” august. bis central bankers ’ speeches