, that the netherlands is among the frontrunners in the world in terms of incorporating sustainability considerations in finance. many of our financial institutions assess esg factors in their investment decisions. based on a survey we recently conducted, 17 out 28 surveyed financial institutions measure the carbon footprint of at least a part of their balance sheet. and 9 of those have even committed to lowering that carbon footprint. furthermore, our banks have collectively issued a climate statement, an sdg - dialogue document, and an international covenant on human rights in project finance. they are key players in the equator principles, in carbon disclosure and divestment initiatives. many of our insurers and pension funds, bring up esg - issues in investor calls, and have esg - engagement strategies. and three out of the top 10 of most sustainable companies worldwide according to the canadian investment advisor corporate knights are dutch. in short, the dutch are rather active indeed on this issue and we ’ ve already in fact come quite far. and we ’ re probably a lot further than where people thought we would be 5 or 10 years ago. so, whenever you feel the challenge is insurmountable, just think back to where we stood 10 or, if you go through a moment of particular pessimism, 20 years ago, and where we stand today. hopefully the realization of how far we ’ ve progressed already, will give you enough energy to keep going. dnb initiatives the second consideration - because i promised you two - is that you are not alone in facing this challenge. of course, there are all the signatories to the principles of this manifesto. but actually, your central bank and supervisor faces a similar challenge. you see, dnb, as i ’ m sure many of you know, has been quite active on the topic of climate risks : both on physical risks stemming from climate change, as well as on transition risks, stemming from legislation or market developments. about 2 years ago, we issued a report called time for transition. in this report we investigated the potential impact of the energy transition on the dutch economy, and we noted that the upcoming transition is in fact one of the biggest medium to long term challenges to our economy and therefore for our financial sector. and a few weeks ago we published a report called waterproof?, in which we took a closer look at climate risks in the dutch financial sector. in this report, we concluded that in both a 1. 5 degrees and 3. 5 degrees scenario,

see many governments, business and investors taking steps to pursue it and to tackle these challenges. but we also need to be realistic : we are a long way from achieving the goals. let ’ s take a look at china for example. sure, it ’ s the green energy and green finance power house of today. it ’ s the world ’ s leading producer of solar and wind power, and it ’ s the largest green bond market in the world. but it also uses and produces 50 % of all the coal burnt globally. it ’ s responsible for 25 % percent of all daily energy consumption. and co2 emissions are rising worldwide again, mostly because of china. so the challenges remain. funding the transition and what ’ s more all of these challenges have a financing element. for climate for example, it is estimated that an additional 1. 5 trillion dollars are needed annually to finance the required investments. and for all of the sdgs combined, an estimated 5 - 7 trillion dollars are needed annually until 2030. as the unep fi manifesto rightly states, all of the current initiatives together, however impressive, will most likely not be enough to finance the sdg investment gap. and so, what is needed, according to the manifesto, is a financial sector that jointly considers the three pillars of sustainable development : economic, environmental and social. and that any investment should deliver a positive contribution to one of these pillars, once any potential negative impacts to the other pillars have been identified and mitigated. eric usher – and we are very proud to welcome him here on our premises - will explain the thinking behind unep fi ’ s conclusion that in their assessment a transition to a new finance paradigm is required. that ’ s right, ladies and gentleman, a new paradigm no less! talking about ambition … getting to a financial sector that bases itself on an appraisal of both positive and negative impacts will not be easy, i ’ m afraid. in fact, it´ll be hard. and if it were to be done, it would require courage, practice and perseverance. and there will probably be moments where you might simply think : this is in fact impossible ; there is simply no way to achieve this, so why am i even hurting my brain over this? dutch initiatives well, should that be the case, please allow me to share two considerations with you that might make your struggle more bearable. one : i ’ d dare to say, somewhat chauvinistically