irregularities in the financial statements of certain major companies, especially in the united states, fuelled a notable lack of confidence about the information provided to the markets and called into question not only companies ’ reported earnings, but also the suitability of accounting regulations and the independence of auditors and investment banks. given a stock market climate already depressed by the ongoing correction of the bubble that affected the technology and communications sector, this lack of confidence further propelled the downward trend on the equity markets, which favoured the fixed - income markets. moreover, the crises in certain emerging economies continued, especially in latin america, and this also contributed to the general risk - aversion of investors on international financial markets. a key feature of recent developments in the world economy is that the aforementioned shocks, whose common denominator is their impact on agents ’ confidence, affected all the developed economies and some of the emerging ones almost simultaneously. this highlights how, in an increasingly globalised world, the transmission channels on which expectations turn ( and which exert a key influence on the financial markets ) are extremely rapid. all economies, especially the most developed ones, are prone to the impact of this type of disturbance, whose origin may be very remote and whose relationship to a specific national economy ’ s fundamentals may seem far - removed. the loss of confidence stemming from the aforementioned shocks was, in turn, amplified by various deep - seated imbalances in the world economy which have not been corrected or have even worsened, including most notably the us current - account deficit and persistent deflation in japan. these underlying weaknesses stoked up uncertainty and a climate of mistrust in various segments of the world economy, all of which contributed too to checking and postponing the onset of recovery. against this background of closely interacting national economies, mention should be made of the high dependence of the rest of the world on the us economy, which proved greater than expected, despite the fact that the results in the united states were not particularly buoyant. such dependence is a cause for concern since the united states is, at the same time, the main source of growth for the rest of the world and the main raiser of savings on the international capital market, a situation that is hardly sustainable over the medium and long term. moreover, the saving / investment mismatch in the united states has been heightened recently by the clearly expansionary bias of monetary and, above all, fiscal policy. in these circumstances, a swift correction of the us external

margarita delgado : role of the financial sphere in accelerating decarbonisation speech by ms margarita delgado, deputy governor of the bank of spain, at an event jointly organised by the bank of spain, the world wide fund for nature, the ministry for the economy and the ministry for the ecological transition and the demographic challenge, 3 december 2020. * * * good morning, and thank you all for being here, whether in person or online, attending this event jointly organised by the banco de espana, the world wide fund for nature, the ministry for the economy and the ministry for the ecological transition and the demographic challenge, which aims to boost the role of the financial sphere in the process of decarbonisation. the transformation of our economy into a more sustainable model is an unavoidable necessity to which we have committed ourselves as a society and which we have agreed with our european partners. the draft climate change law includes a set of measures that essentially impact what we call the real economy. there are references to the role of the financial sector in just a couple of its articles. a priori, that would seem natural and logical. evidently, the co2 reduction targets directly affect energy production, transport, mining and industrial processes in general. but anybody might well consider that the effects on the services sector or, of course, the banking industry should not be so significant. however, we should not forget that the real economy and the financial economy are largely two sides of the same coin. without one, the other would not exist. financing is a key element for economic activity, and channelling such financing is precisely where we need the banking sector. we have once again been able to witness this owing to covid - 19. as you will recall, the financial sector was declared an essential service during the lockdown. and, for example, without banks ’ active participation, it would not have been possible to successfully structure the ico guarantees programme. naturally, mobilising the resources needed for this transformation, which the law estimates at around €200 billion, will necessarily involve public - private investment formulas in which banks will no doubt play a key role. as you can imagine, financing these public - private investment needs is reason enough for the banking system to become involved. but initiatives such as the climate agreement signed on the occasion of the cop25 and the launch of finresp ( centre for responsible and sustainable finances ) show that the sector is clearly committed. how can the financial economy contribute to switching the real