INTHEBLACK February 2022 - Magazine - Page 21
STORY PRUE MOODIE
COP26:
KEY OUTCOMES
I N T H E A F T E R M AT H O F T H E M U C H -A N T I C I PAT E D C O P 26 C O N F E R E N C E
L AS T Y E A R , G O V E R N M E N T S A N D B U S I N E S S E S A L I K E A R E U N PA C K I N G
T H E M I X E D B A G O F O U T C O M E S A N D T H E I R I M P L I C AT I O N S I N T H E R A C E
T O M I T I G AT E T H E E F F E C T S O F C L I M AT E C H A N G E .
F
or accountants working in countries
designated by the Climate Action Tracker
as having “low climate ambition” –
which includes Australia – helping their
organisations and clients transition to a clean carbon
economy is far from easy.
What accountants and businesses need is a carbon
price and a clear timetable outlining the steps towards
a low emissions economy. With governments slow
to act, all hopes were on the 26th United Nations
Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP)
in Glasgow in October 2021 and the Glasgow
Climate Pact signed at the conference.
However, neither the Glasgow Climate Pact itself,
nor the emissions reductions targets offered by
the world’s biggest emitters before the conference
offered the extent of clarity required by the business
community.
FIRST, THE GOOD NEWS
The Glasgow conference was the latest in a process
started in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 by the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC) to redress the human activities that
contribute to climate change.
While the 2021 pact lacks bite as compared
to the more ambitious 2015 Paris Agreement,
it does dramatically raise the stakes for the next
COP27 meeting, scheduled to be held in Egypt
in November 2022.
Another piece of good news is that the side
deals made during the conference bode well for
the career prospects of accountants and auditors.
AT A
GLANCE
The Glasgow Climate
Pact signed in October
2021 significantly raises
the stakes for addressing
emissions reduction
ahead of the United
Nations Climate Change
Conference of the Parties
(COP) 27, which is to be
held later this year.
The series of side
deals made during
the conference mean
accountants and auditors
will play a significant role
in the transition to a lowcarbon future, when it
comes to understanding
the demands of
regulators and investors
and analysing
opportunities for
investment.
Multidisciplinary teams that understand the shifting
demands of investors and regulators, and that can
analyse the opportunities for investment while
holding governments and corporations to account for
their declarations, will be a vital part of the transition
to a low-carbon future.
DIVIDED OPINIONS
John Purcell FCPA, CPA Australia’s former policy
adviser environmental, social and governance (ESG),
says he is disappointed by some of the Pact’s final
compromised language, containing as it does words
like “requests” and “urges” instead of the Paris
Agreement’s more assertive “shall”.
“The wording from COP26 allows national
governments such as Australia’s to continue to
obfuscate in setting firm emissions reduction targets,”
Purcell says.
“The Pact doesn’t appropriately communicate to
business what the path ahead needs to be.”
Eugene Wong CPA, CEO of Sustainable Finance
Institute Asia, which operates in Singapore and
Malaysia, is more optimistic about the signals sent
by Glasgow.
“One of the clear messages is that greenhouse gas
emissions should fall by 45 per cent by 2030,” Wong
says. “That helps to avoid backloading the net zero
effort, which happens when countries delay cuts as
long as possible.”
Unlike Australia, which is, for the moment, sticking
to cuts of 26 per cent to 28 per cent from 2005 levels
by 2030, Malaysia’s 2030 target, updated in the leadup to Glasgow, is more in line with the Pact.
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