, the citizens grow increasingly dissatisfied with policy - making and become detached from their leaders ’ actions. the gap is then filled by extremism and populism, two evolving diseases of societies today. moreover, despite an immense stock of knowledge that is accessible to an unprecedented number of people, we notice a lack of appetite for this knowledge, most surprisingly among younger generations. therefore, it appears that our real problem is not the lack of knowledge, but the lack of interest for knowledge. 1 / 2 bis central bankers'speeches i have to tell you that the national bank of romania has established 9 years ago its activity of financial education and last year we created a specialized department for this purpose. this conference is organized under the umbrella of our broader project academica, meant to stimulate the contacts between the academic world, our central bank experts and the public. with this triangle of knowledge, we hope to become more and more successful in reaching the hearts and minds of citizens, but also of policymakers and company managers. we have a long way to go in both directions. we still see large groups of population that have insufficient or zero knowledge about the economy and the risks to their economic life. the last survey on financial literacy in romania revealed that only 22 % of the adult population could be considered financially literate. this means that the rest of respondents have problems in understanding the perils of inflation or the risks associated with a bank credit. therefore, it goes without saying that in order to have successful policies, we have not only to integrate more knowledge in our policy design, but also to convince people to integrate more knowledge in their financial decisions. and this is twice as hard to achieve. these facts oblige us to realize that challenging the status quo means in the end challenging mentalities, both those of policymakers and of citizens. it is a very complex process, but we see it as an opportunity as well. we can transform education and awareness in very effective policy tools, to everybody ’ s benefit. we can surpass the objective limits of our policy actions, by making people more aware of these very objective limits. bridging the knowledge gap can lead to more financial inclusion, to more access to finance, which is good news for banks, companies, citizens and public authorities alike. ladies and gentlemen, my conclusion and my message for you, distinguished participants to this conference, and i do not want to sound old fashioned, is that we need research and economic analysis that is practical and can fill

first, building effective partnerships. overcoming the climate challenge will require not just individual stakeholders chipping away at the problem, but effective partnerships across domains and across borders. to achieve a credible yet just transition, we need partnerships across domains. governments, to put in place the necessary policies – imposing a price on carbon and setting emissions standards and regulations. banks, to direct financing to green and transition projects. scientists and technologists, to improve the economics and scalability of clean energy solutions. industry, to deploy cleaner technologies and work processes and prepare their workers for the green transition. people, to adjust their consumption choices to support a less carbon - intensive or energy - intensive lifestyle. take for example, singapore's approach to preparing the workforce for a lowcarbon future. a critical aspect of ensuring a just transition is to manage the impact on livelihoods and workers in a decarbonising world. in singapore, we are forging partnerships to help prepare our workforce for a lowcarbon future. the green skills committee brings together representatives from trade unions, businesses, trade associations and industry chambers, institutes of higher learning, professional bodies, and government agencies. the committee will identify the green skills that will be in demand in the future and support workers develop these skills so that they can take on new and transformed jobs in a very different type of economy : less carbon - intensive, more energy - efficient, more sustainable. partnerships also need to straddle across borders. singapore feels this acutely, both as a beneficiary of such cross - border collaborations and as a contributor to regional and global efforts. as a small city - state with very little access to renewable energy, singapore relies on regional and international co - operation. 2 / 4 bis - central bankers'speeches we have one of the highest urban densities in the world. we have very limited land and sea spaces, low wind speeds, and a lack of hydrothermal resources. even if we maximised solar energy deployment, it would cover less than 10 % of our electricity needs. we rely on international cooperation in areas like the import of low - carbon energy through regional power grids ; enabling supply chains for low - carbon fuels such as hydrogen and ammonia to meet our climate goals. as a global maritime and aviation hub, singapore plays a larger role to advance climate action beyond its borders. as a maritime hub, we are promoting decarbonisation partnerships through green and digital shipping corridors that support the transition to low - and zero - carbon fuels.