ACCA pushes for sustainability reporting standards at COP29

Global accountancy body ACCA is pushing for adoption of sustainability reporting standards at this year’s COP29 in Azerbaijan. In a series of meetings and panel discussions, ACCA is raising awareness of how adoption of sustainability disclosures is driving investment in sustainable businesses and the net zero transition, and the “urgent need” for this to speed up and become universal. It is also highlighting the need for more professional skills capacity in sustainability. The skillset of the accountancy profession is broadening to embrace sustainable business, finance and reporting, ACCA says. At the same time the accountancy body is ensuring that delegates to the UN Climate Conference are aware of the “vital” role that small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) have in ensuring that business moves to Net Zero. Vikas Aggarwal, regional head of public affairs for Europe, Eurasia, Middle East and the Americas, ACCA, said: “It’s crucial that SMEs - the backbone of supply chains and economies across the world - aren’t forgotten in the journey to Net Zero. But they face huge challenges, including accessing sustainable finance and a lack of the professional skills needed to adopt sustainable business models.” Previously, ACCA has led the accountancy profession in taking action on climate change including sharing best practice, creating knowledge hubs, and building world-leading education and learning opportunities and providing guidance and toolkits on sustainability reporting. At COP16, the UN Biodiversity Conference which took place earlier in November, ACCA launched the “Empowering business: navigating nature-related reporting” report, calling on accountants to understand the concepts, principles, challenges and opportunities of nature-related reporting. Now, as COP29 opened, ACCA published the “Weathering the storm: building resilience against climate disruptions” report which outlined how “unprepared” businesses are for climate-related disasters. Aggarwal added: “Financial professionals are in no doubt that huge investment is needed in clean energy and sustainable business. Part of ACCA’s role is to explain and amplify that message to business and government. “That is why we were so pleased to be part of the discussion at COP29 Azerbaijan set up by the Global Capacity Building Coalition of which ACCA is a supporter member. Over the week it has been highlighted how resilience will be key, as explored in our new report, Weathering the storm. A focus on skills development is crucial; we’ll continue to work urgently to play our part because the critical need is to take action.”

ACCA pushes for sustainability reporting standards at COP29

In a series of meetings and panel discussions, ACCA is raising awareness of how adoption of sustainability disclosures is driving investment in sustainable businesses

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