For instance, the 2019 UN Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES)5 reminds us that human activity caused a catastrophic decline in Earth’s biodiversity (e.g. the current rate of extinction of species is between 100 and 1,000 times higher than the reference rate of the past million years). More recently the Dasgupta review6 in the UK states how severe the risks linked to biodiversity loss are and how complex the interactions between human actions and nature are. The scientific community actually tells us that these ecological risks are interconnected and should not be addressed in silo. For example, the concept of One Health developed by several international organisations suggests that human, animal and environmental health are interconnected and can only be addressed jointly. In its final declaration of the Global Health summit in Rome (May 21), President Mario Draghi stated:7 “The Rome Declaration rightly emphasises the importance of pursuing a One Health approach ‐ and here I’m coming to climate ‐, to preserve human, animal and environmental safety. This is the key priority of Italy’s G20 Presidency. The Scientific Expert Panel has stated how most infectious diseases are caused by pathogens that are derived from animals. Their emergence is largely driven by deforestation, wildlife exploitation, and other human activities. Effective environmental action can help to defend animal welfare and ultimately mitigate the risk of new health threats. When pursuing a common strategy to prevent future pandemics, we must uphold our commitment to limit environmental damage and tackle the climate crisis.
ECB policy interest rates were already then at their lower bound, at practically zero, with negative rates on the deposit facility. At the same time, liquidity provision by the ECB through its regular open market operations and its longer-term operations followed an on-demand principle, granting all the liquidity requested by banks; indeed, for several years a policy has been pursued under which, at the interest-rate marked for monetary policy operations, the ECB has not rationed the volume of liquidity provided to banks. After a few months’ experience, we can state that asset purchases have clearly contributed to re-anchoring inflation expectations, in line with the medium-term objective and, most importantly, they have checked and reversed the rise in real interest rates. Their effects have also been manifest in portfolio re-balancing, encouraging investors to shift holdings from riskBIS central bankers’ speeches  1  free or very low-risk securities to riskier ones, thereby reducing the cost of financing for consumers and investors. The second aspect I would like to mention is the role of economic policies in countries that have had to set about correcting the deep-seated imbalances built up in the expansion that ended with the onset of the crisis in 2007–2008. I would refer to policies aimed at improving competitiveness in goods markets and at reducing labour market inefficiencies, which are most significant in countries with high unemployment, in particular in those cases in which high indebtness is a constraint on the possibility of implementing demand-boosting policies.