We have pontificated before in this blog about the lamentable record of accountants in terms of sustainability. Praiseworthy as it is that the ICAEW is holding a Climate Change summit, online and staggered over the working week, and good as most of it has been, they started it off with a disastrous PR blunder by inviting a member of the United Arab Emirates’ delegation at COP27 to report back on that event in the opening session,
The problem with this idea is illustrated I think by the question I will be posing at the Summit this morning:
“Why did the ICAEW see fit to invite to make the COP27 Climate Summit presentation a representative of the country delegation which sent a record 70 fossil fuel industry linked delegates out of the record 600+ such delegates at COP27, and how did the Institute expect to obtain an unbiased view of the Summit and its underwhelming results from a person whose delegation, along with its many fellow travellers, no doubt made a significant contribution to the Summit’s failure?”
In fact, the UAE sent more than twice as many fossil fuel delegates as any other country, and if we disregard the pariah state that is Russia, 6 times as many as any other country.
If the road to hell is paved with good intentions, I fear for the ICAEW. As representatives of a profession heavily involved with due diligence, a little of that would not have gone amiss in this case.
I am a believer in the right to reply, so when (I am an optimist) I get a reply from the ICAEW I will publish it on this blog with my comments and response.
