Forth’s work suggests transport networks are a large part of the explanation. By analysing commuting times into Birmingham at different times of the day, he provide a measure of the “effective” working population. At peak times, the effective working population of Birmingham is perhaps 50% smaller than its measured population due to poor transport infrastructure. This helps explain why Birmingham punches below its  demographic weight. This is a terrific example of how high-resolution data can be used to understand local patterns of economic growth. The same data could be used to analyse the “effective” working population in other UK cities, perhaps helping explain their under-performance. It could also be used to answer industrial strategy  questions, such as what impact new transport routes have on the effective working population of the UK’s major cities and hence on their incomes through agglomeration effects. Imagine a transport strategy whose aim was to raise the effective working population of those UK cities currently operating below the line. Using Chart 22, doing so would raise UK GDP per head by around 10% or around $ £ in today’s money. Those annual benefits could be compared with the one-off costs of investment to determine the desirability of such a policy, as part of the UK’s industrial strategy. My second example draws inspiration from recent work at the University of Cambridge by Penny Mealy, including by my colleague on the Industrial Strategy Council Diane Coyle.
For us at the ECB, this means continuing to make progress on our climate roadmap.2 This week we will publish the first climate-related financial disclosures of the Eurosystem's corporate sector assets held for monetary policy purposes, and of the ECB's own funds and the staff pension fund. We will be joined in the coming weeks by all Eurosystem central banks, which will disclose climate information on their own eurodenominated non-monetary policy portfolios. Besides helping us be more transparent about our climate impact, these disclosures help us track our progress towards supporting, within our mandate, a decarbonisation path in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement and EU climate neutrality objectives. They will show, for example, that our corporate sector portfolio is becoming less carbon intensive, partly thanks to our efforts to tilt purchases towards issuers with a better climate performance. Over time – as more and better-quality data become available – we will improve the level of detail and expand reporting to include other portfolios and asset classes. Better and harmonised climate disclosures for all asset classes would help not only the ECB, but also the entire financial sector, to better account for climate-related risks.3 Thank you for your attention, I now look forward to your questions. 1 Gil-Robles, J.M. (1999), "Speech to the European Council", 3 June. 2 ECB (2021), "ECB presents action plan to include climate change considerations in its  monetary policy strategy", 8 July. 3 https://www.ecb.europa.eu/pub/pdf/other/ecb.ESA_ECB_joint_statement~c1f96d353b. en.pdf. 3/3  BIS - Central bankers' speeches