climate finance day 2018 – paris, 28 november 2018 the role of finance : anticipating climate risks, financing transition opportunities closing session : speech by francois villeroy de galhau governor of the banque de france press contact : mark deen ( mark. deen @ banque - france. fr ). page 1 sur 6 ladies and gentlemen, it is a great pleasure to be here to conclude this fourth edition of climate finance day. this event gives a concrete picture of what i like to call the “ powerful coalition of the willing ”. each and every one of us – public authorities ; academics, ngo ’ s and think tanks ; corporates and financial institutions – have a part to play in this coalition. it is a shared challenge that no one can tackle alone, and you have worked during these last three days to bring tangible solutions to quickly and effectively finance the transition. paris, chere madame la maire, has been a driving force committed to translating momentum into concrete action. let me mention three key milestones : the cop 21 back in 2015, the “ one planet summit ” in december 2017, and this fourth edition of climate finance day. to better address concretely the financial risks stemming from climate change, the banque de france initiated a network for greening the financial system ( ngfs ) at the one planet summit, with eight founding members. i in less than one year, we have been joined by 13 other members ii and five observers iii from the five continents. they work together with great energy and enthusiasm. in my remarks today, i will ( i ) take stock of the ngfs ’ achievements and then outline the decisive steps that are still ahead of us in order to ( ii ) anticipate climate risks and ( iii ) seize opportunities. * * i. the ngfs ’ first achievements as highlighted by the winner of the 2018 nobel prize in economics, william nordhaus, although “ there is substantial uncertainty about the path of climate change and its impacts [ … ] this does not reduce the urgency of taking strong climate - change policies today. iv ” tackling climate change to “ prevent the airplane from crashing ” is first and foremost the responsibility of appropriate public policies in energy – as page 2 sur 6 announced yesterday for france –, transportation, housing or – yes – taxation and carbon pricing. finance cannot substitute them, but finance can help ; and as central bankers and supervisors, we are determined to help. i would even say that this challenge is our “ new frontier

can probably imagine, benjamin franklin ’ s philosophy has crossed the atlantic and still guides decision - makers today, including at the european central bank. in that regard, i would like to touch on a few ideas drawn from his autobiography. i need not remind you of his great fondness for quotations, especially in poor richard ’ s almanack. in his autobiography, benjamin franklin defined a number of virtues that he believed to be cardinal. they included temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, etc. i find his interpretation of these terms interesting. for instance, for benjamin franklin, the term “ temperance ” should be understood as follows : “ temperance first, as it tends to procure that coolness and clearness of head, which is so necessary where constant vigilance was to be kept up … ”. this, to my mind, is one of the virtues that central bankers must impose on themselves. my eurosystem colleagues and i have made it one of the guiding principles of our actions. benjamin franklin continues his description of these virtues in the following terms “ frugality and industry freeing me from my remaining debt, and producing affluence and independence, would make more easy the practice of sincerity and justice,..., ”. he emphasises the importance of being freed from one ’ s debts and recovering one ’ s independence. we know from his political activity that he attaches a great deal of importance to the independence of the nation, but here we are talking about that of individuals and therefore of the institutions for which they are responsible. as we will see later, this is the type of independence that lies at the heart of the eurosystem. furthermore, sincerity can be associated with transparency, another key principle of the eurosystem. as in most human activities, the conduct of monetary policy involves some risk - taking and may, justifiably or not, be subject to debate and criticism, as we will see later on. i would like to conclude this brief tribute to benjamin franklin by quoting one of his phrases that makes an encouraging link between success and risk : “ there are many ways not to succeed, but the most certain is not to take risks ”. let me turn now to my main topic which is to provide you with an overview of the single monetary policy of the eurosystem that consists of the european central bank and the 12 national central banks of euro area member states and of its main