ACCA’s chief executive signs global call to action statement in response to climate change

Helen Brand, the chief executive of ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) has joined forces with chief executives of other professional bodies in a call to urge the global accountancy profession to act now to respond to climate change with the scale and urgency needed.

Organised by A4S, the call to action statement has been signed by 13 chief executives representing 14 accounting bodies representing over 2.5 million accountants and students globally. Each body is a member of A4S’s Accounting Bodies Network (ABN).

The statement lists four clear actions for accountants:

• Provide sound advice and services as organisations, capital markets, and governments develop and implement plans for climate change mitigation and adaptation.
• Use and implement existing and developing reporting frameworks such as those from the International Integrated Reporting Council and the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures.
• Contribute to the efforts of the organisations they work with to integrate climate change risk into organisational strategy, finance, operations, and communications.
• Support sustainable decision making within the organisations they work for by allocating budgets and resources, and by developing high quality and timely information and insights through measurement and disclosure, built on robust and transparent accounting systems.

Helen Brand comments: ‘This is a call to action not just for accountants, but also for the professional bodies of which they are members – we all have an immense role to play here, and alongside my colleagues we all sign up to three proactive commitments that will help our members and future members rise to the challenge.’

These commitments are:

• Provide our members with the training, support and infrastructure they need to apply their skills to the challenge.
• Support relevant market-based policy initiatives and incentives, consistent and well-considered regulation, and more useful disclosure.
• Provide sound advice to help governments to create the policy and regulatory infrastructure necessary for a just transition to a net zero carbon economy.

Helen Brand concludes: ‘Solutions to the challenge need a global response at many levels, and accountants along with their professional bodies have a significant role to play. Professional accountants, with their unique training in reporting on CO2 emissions to measuring social impact, means they have the skills, judgement and data-informed view of business that can help in this effort to forge better sustainable behaviours.

‘ACCA is responding to this by ensuring that we support members and students with the relevant skills and ongoing professional development to become climate change leaders within their organistions. We know that our members, with their strong ethical technical rigour, using the power of finance, can make a serious contribution to the climate challenge and we are determined to be there for them.’

The full list of global bodies which have signed up to the call to action is: 

·         Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT)

·         Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA)

·         Association of International Certified Professional Accountants (the unified voice of AICPA and CIMA)

·         Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CAANZ)

·         Chartered Accountants Ireland (CAI)

·         Consiglio Nazionale dei Dottori commercialistie degli Esperti Contabili (CNDCEC)

·         CPA Australia

·         CPA Canada

·         Institut der Wirtschaftsprüfer in Deutschland e.V. (IDW)

·         Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW)

·         Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS)

·         International Federation of Accountants (IFAC)

·         Japanese Institute of Certified Public Accountants (JICPA)

·         Regnskap Norge/Accounting Norway

More details on the campaign are here:

http://www.accountingforsustainability.org/abn-climate-action

Further details on the ABN can be found here:

http://www.accountingforsustainability.org/abn