Applause for Accountants: How Their Work Will Accelerate Solutions for Climate Change

by GLYNT AI | Nov 10, 2022 | GLYNTBlog

While scientists have been issuing warnings that GHG emissions are rising at a fast pace, this week a new player emerged on the scene: Accountants. Despite great interest and intent, businesses have struggled to produce clear and verifiable emissions reports.

And yet the size of the climate challenge requires mobilization of capital far beyond what any government can do:

“The main challenge is to accelerate the energy transition, which requires $4.5T dollars each year. This can only be done by unlocking access to private capital.”

To smooth the path to financing significant change, leading organizations in the accounting profession have made four key announcements at COP27 and elsewhere:

#1. A Global Reporting Framework

The International Finance Reporting Standards (IFRS) announced a reporting framework for sustainability, which integrates reporting of emissions, water, energy and waste into the standards and flows of financial accounting.

#2. To be Adopted by All Companies

The Climate Disclosure Project (CDP), which led the way with soliciting businesses to provide detailed emissions reports and underlying data, announced it will adopt the IFRS standards.

#3. With Clear Accounting Methods

The accounting industry leadership, under the umbrella of COSO, will be issuing an updated report this year on the methods for integrated controls that increase trust and confidence in sustainability data reported.

#4. And Greater Transparency

Michael Bloomberg, who made his fortune from increasing data transparency throughout financial markets, announced three initiatives to bring transparency to sustainability data

The bottom line is that the global financial accounting profession has made a huge contribution to the acceleration of solutions for climate change. In fact, IFRS changed its description to:

“The IFRS Foundation is a not-for-profit responsible for developing global accounting and sustainability disclosure standards, known as IFRS Standards.”

(emphasis added)

Here at GLYNT our mission is for every home and business to produce and profit from their sustainability data. This ambitious vision needs a path from intent to data to action… with financing.

A huge round of applause for the global accounting leadership. Their work enables everyone to speak the same emissions language and increases trust and confidence in emissions data for all. And given the fast pace, there is no need to wait, we’ll see the power of these announcements during 2023 as every business adopts these standards. The great acceleration is on!

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