Sabine Mauderer: Steering through uncharted waters - monetary policy in the face of climate change
Opening address by Dr Sabine Mauderer, Vice-President of the Deutsche Bundesbank, at the Green Swan Conference 2024 "Impact of climate change on the real economy: what does it mean for business and for monetary policy?", Basel, 9 November 2024.
The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and not the view of the BIS.
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1 Introduction
Ladies and gentlemen,
Thank you very much for your kind introduction, and thanks to you and all your colleagues at the BIS for hosting this event.
Dear colleagues, ladies and gentlemen,
I am delighted to have the opportunity to deliver the opening address at this important conference.
Climate change is not only a risk of tomorrow. Climate change is already reshaping our economies, our financial systems, and our societies today. Even our lives are at risk. The devastating floods in Spain are a recent example.
According to the Copernicus Climate Change Service, this year will be the warmest year on record. It will also be the first year in which global temperatures will be more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Global CO2 emissions still remain stubbornly high. So far, mitigation measures have been insufficient. Current global political trends suggest that this situation may persist.
This week, global clean energy stock indices plummeted after the US elections, while the global oil and gas stocks were on the rise. As global warming continues unmitigated, we can expect more climate-related risks to materialise. We are headed towards uncharted waters.
This situation is associated with major uncertainties and entails multiple challenges for central banks and supervisors. Both climate change and the green transition will have macroeconomic impacts. These, in turn, will have implications for our work. Therefore, it is crucial to further deepen our understanding of these effects and evaluate what they mean for monetary policy.