Bill White made an introductory set of comments at a 21 January conference in Zurich organized by the Council on Economic Policies. Motivated by the recognition that dealing with climate change would prove very costly, the conference examined the issue of whether the governance structure (mandates, instruments and accountability mechanisms) of central banking and financial regulation needed to be revisited. White’s comments covered the historical origins of current practices, the underlying assumptions of current practices, the need for review of those basic assumptions and some possible implications of such a review.