ministry of ecological transition to assess the economic and employment implications of the law. i can assure you that measuring these consequences is not proving easy, but also that their measurement is crucial. why is this? measuring the consequences is essential in order for there to be genuine transparency. there has to be information ; without measurements there is only noise. in the absence of information, we cannot make comparisons between alternative investments, or between consumption, economic activity or funding options. without data, we are in the hands of image campaigns and good intentions. responsible investment has an ambitious goal : no less than to transform the economic, environmental and social reality, or at least to contribute to this transformation. so how can this ambitious goal be achieved? the answer is simple : through the behaviour of economic agents, be they households, firms or investors. we have the collective power to transform reality through our actions, but this power cannot be released if we lack reliable information. it is generally said that information is power. it is hard to find a more illustrative example of the truth of this statement. much remains to be done in this field, but we should congratulate ourselves on the fact that credit institutions, investors and customers are all exerting growing pressure in favour of increased transparency and information. naturally, a key factor is that european regulations have also committed to achieving this goal. noteworthy in this respect are various european standards, such as the european green bond standard ( gbs ), whose public consultation concluded a month ago, and the longawaited taxonomy that was approved in june this year. certain private initiatives are also well - known, such as the transparency standards produced by the task force on climaterelated financial disclosures ( tcfd ) at the request of the financial stability board. these are ambitious standards which take time to prepare and which i often refer to in detail in my addresses. today, however, i wish to take this opportunity to mention two farreaching and quite new initiatives which demonstrate that there is growing demand for information that will enable us to assess business reality from both a social and an environmental standpoint. first, an initiative developed by the university of harvard. 1 its aim is to create a new accounting framework that reflects not only the financial, but also the social and environmental performance of each company, to encourage a paradigm shift in business practices. second, on 30 september, the ifrs foundation, which as you well know sets international accounting standards for more than 140 countries, launched a

24. 11. 2020 closing address. 1st mapfre sustainable finances observatory forum margarita delgado deputy governor * english translation of the original speech in spanish good morning. i much appreciate this invitation to close this first mapfre sustainable finances observatory forum. allow me to congratulate mapfre on this initiative and, naturally, iberdrola and the valladolid san juan de dios centre too for this well - deserved award. as many of you will know, i have now been deputy governor of the banco de espana for a little more than two years. a glance at my public agenda over this period will show that a significant number of my public interventions address what has come to be known as “ green or sustainable finances ”. yet among the public addresses by my predecessors in the post, you will find none on this subject. nor do i think you will find many speeches on sustainability on other central bank websites that are more than two years old. along with my personal interest in the goals of combating climate change, i believe this shows two things : first, how novel this topic is for supervisors and central banks ; and second, the great interest it arouses in public opinion. looking through the newspapers we see every day countless initiatives for action and communication in the most diverse sectors relating to sustainability. undoubtedly, the first edition of this forum and of these awards are one such initiative. they are a magnificent opportunity to acknowledge efforts made in the area of responsible investment. what does it mean for an investment to be responsible or ethical? certainly, human behaviour is the only one liable to be qualified as ethical. actions by animals or acts of nature lack this dimension, irrespective of whether their consequences are good or bad. finances, as an exclusively human activity, could thus also be analysed from this dimension. broadly, we identify ethical or responsible investment as that which meets certain standards, namely esg ( environmental, social and governance ) criteria. as i mentioned, this is a very topical subject in the press, but we are clearly dealing with something more than a passing trend. large companies, credit institutions, multilateral banks, official credit agencies and even governments themselves have been making a growing number of debt issues that meet these criteria, generally under the name of “ green bonds ”, which are duly focused on environmental sustainability. but issues of “ social bonds ” are also beginning to emerge. however, these esg standards go beyond any debt class. companies are increasingly incorporating