Frank Elderson: A green light to lead us on the path of economic recovery

Contribution by Mr Frank Elderson, Executive Director of Supervision of the Netherlands Bank, during a satellite event of the 11th edition of the Petersberg Climate Dialogue " Financing Climate Ambition in the context of COVID19", 29 April 2020.

The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and not the view of the BIS.

Frank Elderson participated in the virtual Petersberg Climate Dialogue side event 'Financing Climate Ambition in the context of COVIDー19. In his contribution he pointed out three ideas that he thinks are important in order to shape our thinking in terms of recovery measures that should be taken.

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It is a great honour for me to be on this distinguished panel and to join this wonderful conference.

No doubt, at this moment the first priority of governments is halting the spread of the COVID-19 virus. That having been said, the climate crisis has not just suddenly disappeared. The droughts, the floods, the fires, the famine, the refugees, biodiversity loss: unfortunately they are all still there.

At this moment, all around the world, unprecedented stimulus packages are being implemented to keep economies afloat. These amounts run into billions and trillions.

The priority is to of course limit the economic impact of the pandemic crisis unfolding in front of us. That said:

Are we going to blindly return to our brown past?