jens weidmann : climate change and central banks welcome address by dr jens weidmann, president of the deutsche bundesbank and chairman of the board of directors of the bank for international settlements, at the deutsche bundesbank ’ s second financial market conference, frankfurt am main, 29 october 2019. * * * 1 welcome ladies and gentlemen, allow me to bid you a warm welcome to the deutsche bundesbank ’ s second financial market conference, on my own behalf and that of sabine mauderer, here at the gesellschaftshaus in frankfurt ’ s green haven, the palmengarten. frankfurt ’ s most charming park, the palmengarten was created 150 years ago, and a series of events have been scheduled this week to commemorate this anniversary. when adolphe, duke of nassau, was forced to disband his collection of exotic plants housed in schloss biebrich in 1866, heinrich siesmayer, a frankfurt garden designer, came up with a clever idea – he set up a stock corporation to buy the plants and build a botanical garden in frankfurt. city folk snapped up the shares in this company, allowing siesmayer to buy duke adolphe ’ s green treasures for a price of 60, 000 gulden. 1 i suppose you could say that the foundation of frankfurt ’ s palmengarten was an early example of “ green finance ”, given that it was a privately funded green investment. but there is more to green finance than that, of course. it is a term that also includes accounting for climate risks in the financial sector, or the transition to a greener financial system. if environmental concerns are joined by economic and social sustainability considerations, it is common to use the term “ sustainable finance ”. 2 and that is what today ’ s conference is all about : sustainable finance. judging by the huge turnout, i dare say we ’ ve really got our finger on the pulse. we want this conference to be a forum for dialogue among representatives from the financial industry, academia and the public sector. government is hugely interested in growing a sustainable financial sector, as you can see from the fact that not one, not two, but three finance ministers are in attendance. and incidentally, the palmengarten was more than just a private initiative – the city of frankfurt provided the land needed to build it. 2 climate risks and central banks 2. 1 financial stability ladies and gentlemen, the need to transition to a low - carbon

level expert group on sustainable finance ( 2018 ), financing a sustainable european economy. 10 cœure, b., monetary policy and climate change, speech delivered at the scaling up green finance : the role of central banks conference, 8 november 2018. 11 rudebusch, g. d., climate change and the federal reserve, federal reserve bank of san francisco, economic letter 2019 – 09. 12 tooze, a. ( 2019 ), why central banks need to step up on global warming, foreign policy, foreignpolicy. com / 2019 / 07 / 20 / why - central - banks - need - to - step - up - on - global - warming / ; ( 2019 ), greening monetary policy, bruegel working paper, issue 2. schoenmaker, d. 13 matikainen, s., e. campiglio and d. zenghelis ( 2017 ), the climate impact of quantitative easing, policy paper, grantham research institute on climate change and the environment. 4 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches