4 June 2021  Remarks for the panel discussion at the BIS-BdF-IMF-NGFS Green Swan 2021 Global Virtual Conference  Many thanks, Morgan, and thank you also to the BIS, Banque de France, IMF and NGFS for the invitation to take part in this panel. As you perfectly know in both my capacity as Governor of the Bank of Spain and member of the Governing Council of the ECB, and as Chair of the Basel Committee I can say that the topic of climate-related financial risks is one of the top priorities over the coming years. In both cases, I think the right way to frame the issue is to take our mandates as the starting point. In the case of the Basel Committee, as the primary global standard setter for banks, our mandate is to strengthen the regulation, supervision and practices of banks worldwide with the purpose of enhancing financial stability. If we combine this mandate with the fact that, as has been discussed in various sessions during this conference, climate change poses risks to the financial sector (physical and transition risks) that can be significant in magnitude and therefore can impact financial stability at the global level, one should conclude there is a need for supervisors, regulators and, of course, the Basel Committee to act. In particular, we need to guarantee that individual banks and the banking system as a whole are adequately prepared to identify, measure and mitigate climate-related financial risks. This is the approach we are following at the Basel Committee level.
But the inflation target remains our primary objective and we will have to be careful not to allow pressures to build up from excess demand. It would be a relief, probably for both you as investors and for us as policy makers, to get back to more normal policy conditions, but my own judgement is that we are still some way off the point where it is appropriate to start raising Bank Rate and that when it is time, it would be appropriate to do so only gradually. BIS central bankers’ speeches  5