, or norway, which both, it is worth noting, have access to the eu single market. and that ’ s without knowing for sure whether the uk and eu will even be capable of hammering out the broad thrust of a free trade agreement within the space of two years. yet what already seems clear is that this move, this “ hard brexit ", will mainly leave the uk worse off at the end of the day. but that is not to say that brexit won ’ t leave the german economy unscathed – the uk is, after all, the third most important export destination for the german economy. uncertainty is more intense still over the shape and possible repercussions of future economic policy in the united states. it was mainly the invigorating effects of the prospect of higher government spending and lower taxes which won plaudits in the markets, but traders have so far turned a blind eye to the economic damage that would be wrought by looming trade barriers and an increasingly interventionist economic policy. and yet open markets and a competitive economic system are the very qualities that underpin our prosperity. and the notion that as many people as possible should benefit as a result is the core idea of the social market economy, which ludwig erhard so neatly encapsulated with the phrase “ prosperity for all! ". instead, we are seeing mounting scepticism over globalisation, a sentiment by no means confined to the united states. in europe, too, the fear of globalisation is on the rise and people are increasingly shunning open markets. public concerns like these need to be taken seriously. but it ’ s safe to say that barriers and exclusion would be the wrong response. that ’ s because open markets boost prosperity as a whole, but not necessarily for each of us all the time. if the social market economy is to live up to its promise of delivering inclusive prosperity, we will need to prime enterprises and their 2 / 9 bis central bankers'speeches employees to harness the opportunities presented by globalisation and technological progress. wherever social hardship arises, a target - driven and transparent tax and transfer system like the one we have in germany should step in and act as a cushion. in any case, i find the protectionist rhetoric coming out of washington very worrying, especially as germany is increasingly in the sights of the us. accusations that germany is taking advantage of the united states and other countries with an undervalued currency are more than absurd. while

climaterelated ﬁnancial risks will also affect the ﬁnancial actors that provide those companies with funds. it is thus in the interest of banks, insurers and other investors to recognise climate - related ﬁnancial risks and to adjust their risk management properly. this, in turn, could help companies to manage their underlying climate risks. indeed, a survey among institutional investors even found that most of them had already actively approached their portfolio companies on the issue of climate risks ; only 16 % had not taken any action. however, a different survey painted a bleaker picture of ﬁnancial institutions worldwide, as only a quarter of respondents reported on the emissions they ﬁnance. for these institutions, their ﬁnanced emissions were ( on average ) hundreds of times larger than their operational emissions. as many respondents did not analyse the climate impact of their portfolios at all, this may suggest an underestimation of climate risks. investors still lack a clear view of how exposed many companies are to climate risks and how they handle those risks. what is needed is comprehensive disclosure of consistent, comparable and reliable climate - related information. the task force for climate - related financial disclosures ( tcfd ) already offers a framework for companies to disclose important climate - related information voluntarily. and it may be encouraging to see that support for the tcfd recommendations has grown substantially in recent years. but unfortunately, the disclosure of aligned information is still low. last year ’ s status report found that, in each category, only a minority of the reviewed companies disclosed information consistent with tcfd recommendations. [ 7 ] moreover, having analysed reports from tcfd - supporting ﬁrms, researchers concluded that “ ﬁrms cherrypick to report primarily nonmaterial climate risk information. ” this sobering ﬁnding should not come as a surprise. disclosure has characteristics of a public good and may therefore be riddled with free - rider problems. [ 9 ] thus, a voluntary approach may not provide the optimum quantity and quality of information from an aggregate point of view. given the experiences gained thus far, governments ’ current initiatives for moving toward mandatory climate - related disclosures are a step in the right direction. in this context, we should acknowledge that, globally, even basic information is still lacking. according to calculations by bundesbank staff, only 15 % of all stock market - listed companies disclosed their greenhouse gas emissions in 2019. considering the urgency of the matter, we