I spoke twice at the AccountingWEB live exhibition yesterday, albeit by dialling in unlike my co-presenters.
The second of these sessions was on climate accounting. I was asked to summarise my view on climate change as an accountant. I summarised it by saying something like this:
On its current trajectory, this planet is bust.
It is no longer a going concern.
It is environmentally insolvent.
If accounts of public interest entities do not show that then those accounts are not true and fair. But it's not the planet that needs to change, it is accounting that needs to get its house in order.
This is why we need a massive rethink of what accounting is about.
I am working on a draft Financial Reporting Standard for Accounting for Environmental Change right now, turning sustainable cost accounting into the format that accountants are used to. It will take a lot of work to deliver this, but so too did country-by-country reporting take a lot of work, and it happened, and the climate crisis is an issue even bigger than international corporate tax abuse.
This change has to be won.
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Thanks, I think sustainable accounting could be a game changer. If there’s numbers, there are graphs, and graphs tell a thousand words. Hence, some in govt keen to stop reporting covid cases.
On covid – had my booster, very thankful to volunteers and NHS staff. Side effects minimal.
I actually had side effects last weekend from mine – felt grotty – but only for a day – and well worth it, I think
Good luck Richard – your SCA concept is really one of the most important pieces of work on your desk. It’s fundamental to better business and a better world to be honest.
My partner is doing an accountancy course and is currently looking at resourcing in a very narrow band of considerations (it’s all internal Richard to the organisation, very inward looking).
The wilful blindness both in accounting and economics of externalities has got to stop. In my MBA, when we looked at strategic appraisals, a few of the models alluded to these issues – but those models that talked about competition strategy are obviously the most popular.
Given that in reality we are living in an emerging world where cooperation is going to be the key to survival, it makes me shudder.
Accounting simply ignor3s externalities
SCA is going to two conferences in the next few weeks – the first next week
Good luck Richard
Which conference is it next week?
Don’t forget to emphasise that scope 3 emissions have to be included and that while this might lead to vast swathes of industry (oil and gas, airlines etc) having to close down, it will be a price worth paying to avoid the inevitable end of the world if we don’t.
Next week is a workshop at Copenhagen Business School, via zoom, of course
Scope 3 is emphatically in
Sounds terrific. Who else will be attending this conference next week and how can I participate?
It is a workshop by invitation only for those participating in an extended academic project
Having no expertise in the field does not blind me to the pivotal importance of your work. My experience of lawyers is more extensive but both professions appear to have the same pressing need for an intellectual upgrade.
The blindness of business leaders only pursuing the profit motive and maximising consumption is leading to planetary destruction. Any accounting system that can highlight the destructive results of a firm’s activity, whether CO2 emissions or the destruction of the natural world and pollution, is worth making a compulsory section of all accounts and auditing. If this doesn’t happen and the corporations are let off their virtually criminal damage, then we are all doomed.
What is happening with Carbon Credit, Carbon Trading, Carbon Tax Levy, Carbon Law, etc etc is not more prominent in the discussion, companies now should be getting carbon tax levy applied to them. Also why is there not more on the blockchain in the carboncoin or something similar.
To matter nowadays it seems something has to be able to be expressed numerically and then crunched through a computer so keep up the good work Richard and there might be hope.
Although not directly accounting related, this is climate related: Mr Pie’s take on COP26.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23nDxPSIoAw
much of it was quite good albeit a bit contrived. But: Look very carefully @ 16.00 minutes with particular attention @ 17.00 minute. She almost broke down crying.
Not a good sign from a seasoned politician.
Caroline is a human being too, and my friend
I thought that the start was very contrived and it got better