It is a pleasure to be at Norges Bank again. When I last visited the central bank, back in the summer of 2016, the world – and Europe – were in a very different place. The Paris Agreement, the international treaty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, was not yet one year old, and still enjoyed strong support among all major powers. A benign geopolitical environment also blurred the risks of Europe’s growing energy dependencies. Nord Stream-2, a new gas pipeline project, had recently been announced, promising to deliver cheap Russian gas to the continent. Since then, our world has changed dramatically. We are ... (full story)