Making Cop26 Count - David Nussbaum - Claire Martin - Sarah Becker

More than nine out of ten Chartered Accountants and finance professionals believe accountants have an important role to play in climate change, and there is broad optimism within the profession about the measures agreed during the recent COP26 summit. However, confidence in political and business leaders to deliver on the necessary change is considerably lower, and it seems unlikely many organisations will achieve their net zero goals by 2030.

In this series of extracts from Chartered Accountants Worldwide's webinar "Making Cop26 Count", David Nussbaum examines the legacy of the Climate summit and how we should engage with its tenets in the future.

This episode features David talking to Claire Martin from Grant Thornton, who specialises in Sustainable Growth and Business Resilience.

David is the Senior Independent Director of Drax Group plc; a Board member of the Value Reporting Foundation where he chairs the Finance & Compensation Committee; a Board member of the International Budget Partnership; a member of the Ethical Investment Advisory Group of the Church of England; Chair of the Transparency International UK Advisory Council; a member of the Advisory Council of Blueprint for Better Business; and an independent Councillor on his local Parish Council. David was for five years the Chief Executive of The Elders, a group of independent global leaders – mainly former Presidents and UN Secretary Generals – founded by Nelson Mandela working together for peace and human rights, until October 2021. 

Claire is a chartered accountant with several years of experience working with businesses and stakeholders, both public and private sector, as they seek to secure finance to unlock growth opportunities, or restructure to implement a sustainable business model for the longer-term outlook. 

She has worked on projects across a number of sectors, with a particular focus on the financial services and energy sectors, and worked actively with several businesses with significant international reach. 

Sarah is an experienced Chartered Accountant with a demonstrated history of working in the accounting industry. Skilled in Negotiation, Corporate Finance, Strategic Planning, Business Development, and Accounting. Strong accounting professional with a Bachelor of Business Management/Commerce focused in Accounting and Finance from The University of Queensland.

Transcript

Hello, and welcome to Making cup 26 Count, a podcast series based on the finvest 2030 webinar supported by iCast One Young World and Chartered Accountants worldwide. In this episode we hear from our host David Nussbaum, as he introduces the themes and topics of the webinar, and talks first to Claire Martin, associate director at Grant Thornton with responsibility for sustainable growth and business resilience planning. And then to Sarah Becker, a chartered accountant whose clients include many regional Australian primary producers.

00:43

Hello, everybody. Good morning. Good afternoon. Good evening, wherever you are, and welcome to today's and making cop 26 Count webinar hosted by Chartered Accountants worldwide and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland iCast in partnership with One Young World. My name is David NOSPAM. I'm currently the senior independent director of Drax Group plc. I'm a board member of the value reporting Foundation, a member of iCast and until October, I was the chief executive of the elders, a group of about a dozen former presidents and other global leaders working on peace and human rights. And I'm pleased to be your host today taking you through this exciting webcast. As you'll have seen, we've got a diverse panel of speakers who joined us today to reflect on cop 26. And tell us about how they are taking action in their communities to drive a just transition and mitigate the crime climate crisis. Now for those who might not be quite sure what we mean by a just transition, it's described by Greenpeace no less as moving to an environmentally sustainable economy without leaving workers in polluting industries and others behind. Well, we're thrilled to welcome over 1300 attendees from 68 countries today. Wow. That's proves that this is such a great international concern and interest matter. And our four panellists come from different places around the world and work in a variety of industries. They are joining us digitally today so that we can have a lively conversation about what changes are happening in their industries, what still needs to be done, and how we can each contribute. Well, I wonder what you thought of cop 26. I remember being at COP 15 in Copenhagen in 2009, where countries failed to reach any significant agreement. But I was also a cop 21 in Paris in 2015, when finally there was global agreements on keeping average temperature rises to well below two degrees. Well, on the one hand, cop 26 delivered pledges to reduce methane emissions, reverse deforestation, amongst others. And I was delighted to see when iCast published its 10 takeaways from cop 26 that the first item on the list was the launch of the i SSV, the International sustainability standards board. On the other hand, countries agreed only to phase down coal rather than phased out. And the richer countries are still not delivering the $100 billion a year they indicated several years ago. So what are we to make of cop 26? Well, my own sense is that we might react to the overall outcome much as my parents might have reacted to some of my school reports, you know, not as good as we'd hoped, but a lot better than it might have been. Anyway, today we want to discuss what this is going to look like on the ground as it were, is it possible to meet the targets the world has said in a just way? How do our panellists see this happening? From a CA based in Glasgow, whose work includes being part of a UK restructuring energy team to a CA working in a family practice advising clients in rural Australia, from a Climate Reality leader who has worked in West Africa and Latin America and at the International Renewable Energy Agency to a consultant and strategist in a leading global energy transition consulting practice? Wow, what a range of people we have with us today. So I'm looking forward to widening my perspective and understanding of the prospects and opportunities for tackling climate change, and the roles that chartered accountants can play. And with their range of perspectives, I'm wondering, how are our panellists each tackling these challenges? And I'm looking forward to them inspiring each one of us to act in our own life and work in whatever way as we can, so on to our speakers themselves. Our first speaker today is live in Scotland appropriately enough from Glasgow. Claire Martin is an AI cast member and as Associate Director at Grant Thornton, where she supports sustainable growth and business resilience plans. She's also a One Young World ambassador. So Claire, what do you see as you advise your clients about the implications of climate change?

05:30

Thanks, David, for the introduction, and I think, yeah, as you see just a little bit of scene setting, and based in Glasgow, and it really was incredible to see the energy in the strategic and cop 26. And it's in its reach. And just by way of brief, assayed, Mo nephew was because he was discussing cop 26 at school and its goals. And I think that really will have a lasting positive impact on the people of Scotland and their actions. And I'm really looking forward to discussing with everyone today our views on what actionable bring bring globally. And as you see what we are seeing from an advisor perspective, location is also an important point for me to address just referenced in the 2019 legislation that the Scottish Government brought in to make legally binding commitments for Scotland to be net zero by 2045. And one of our government ministers actually has just transitioned as a named portfolio area. So really keen to discuss that further today, too. So Emeril GT C, I work in the business advisory team, supporting businesses in times of challenge or change to ensure they're resilient and on a sustainable growth path, working across a number of sectors, but with a particular interest in the energy sector working on large scale renewable projects, and ensuring that they are viable and offer supply chain benefit. So cop 20 sec reflections from the perspective of an accountant in practice and an advisory role. I think it's fair to say the concept of the Paris Agreement was pretty well understood by the general public prior prior to that up to 26. But almost as a government level problem to solve, and really prior to the last 24 months or so, out with conversations with those in the public sector involved in the planning of cop 26 wasn't really much of a talking point with businesses or other advisors. And then as we got closer to all have our local market conversations with other intermediaries that bring up costs, and there was a real acceptance, I think, from the advisor community here that the outcomes of COP, direct or indirect would have a long lasting impact on how we see the market and how we interact with clients. ESG concerns really a market positive for the mid market. And so the challenge for us is, then how do we discuss them communicate these points as professional advisors for businesses that are not yet in the mindset of prioritising ESG or net zero into their business plans. The recent Chartered Accountants probate survey referenced just 16% of those entities that can that their organisation was on track to achieve net zero by 2030. So still, it's still a long way to go. But I think, for me, a real positive, of course, was the corporate buying. And some of the really significant fringe announcements from from the corporate community that we should see as a genuine positives and not as a green motion exercise, which, from our perspective, and from an advisory role brings into sharp focus, the impact of such announcements on the supply chain of businesses that large businesses have already made significant net zero commitments, these types of customer are going to look to have suppliers and bid into their own business, the same net zero goals, and be able to evidence it back to those customers. So management teams or mid market and SME businesses, and those supply chains really need to be thinking about the kind of post cop netzero mindset what Oh, no. So in terms of high level actions, really early engagement with your key players, is absolutely fundamental being your customers and your lenders, and the influence, they will have over ESG and Nexio conditionality embedded into future contracts and access to finance, it's very much an emerging area for lenders, but good to have those conversations early and don't fall behind the competition. And customers are really recognising the value of suppliers that are already addressing ESG concerns. But but also that will lead investment from from user business, Joel an external support, and where you can be another one and see as a worthwhile investment of management time. We're finding a lot of management teams really fatigued by all the challenges that COVID has brought to them over the last year too. And so in some are putting on the backburner in terms of the net zero agenda and really, there's not the team to do so. So I think It just that hopefully sets up a little bit of the scene around some of the kind of actions and areas where we are certainly working with, with clients on at the moment around that business plan, forecast interrogation and really challenging the status quo with a net zero lens. And probably just closing from an advisor perspective on two points. This is very much a new and emerging area. So advisors are not coming to businesses with all the answers, but really keen to work and support them alongside them. And if you are here, and the audience is someone that engages with professional advisors, make sure you're challenging them on what their own ESG commitments are, and make sure you've got advisors on site that are actually practising what they preach. So that's probably a point to to close on for now, for the panel.

10:53

Right, thank you very much, Claire, and especially thanks for those insights into the changes that are happening for businesses of all sizes, and how the increasing focus on ESG considerations is demanding responsiveness from business, even despite the pressures of the pandemic that of course we're all experiencing