Hong Kong - August 2007
AL GORE ADDRESSES DELEGATES AT ACCA HONG KONG PROFESSIONALISM AND ETHICS EVENT
Hong Kong, August 2007
Former US Vice President Al Gore spoke to around 400 delegates at ACCA Hong Kong's high profile professionalism and ethics event, held in August.
In a wide ranging and challenging speech, Gore advised accountants to take a fresh look at the way they assess corporate environmental impacts, especially carbon emissions. He also set out his vision for a world in which politicians, regulators, companies and professional associations work together for a common goal.
The speech was the highlight of an event organised to promote ACCA's recent initiatives to promote professionalism and ethics in accountancy. Business leaders and finance professionals attended, and guests included Professor K C Chan, Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury; Edward Yau, Secretary for the Environment; Benjamin Tang, Director of Audit; and Stephen Bradley, British Consul-General. The heads of the Hong Kong, Australian, Canadian and British Chambers of Commerce also attended, along with leading academics and business professionals, including PCCW chair Richard Li; MTR Corporation CEO Sir C K Chow; Standard Chartered Bank CEO Peter Sullivan; and Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing CE Paul Chow.
Al Gore warned delegates that there were possibly only ten years left until climate change reached an irreversible tipping point, and that without concerted action it might be too late to stop changes that could take millions of years to reverse.
Organisations and individuals needed to take responsibility for their own actions and develop longer term thinking, commented Gore, whilst also acknowledging the role ACCA has played in bringing sustainability issues onto the mainstream accounting agenda. However, he also emphasised the fact that professional accounting associations had clear societal responsibilities, and should move on from measuring and recording only what is conventionally regarded as having value or as being a liability. Accounting standard setters should look at fuller carbon emission disclosures and develop methods for fully internalising carbon related assets, liabilities and costs.
Thanking the former Vice President for his inspirational speech, ACCA chief executive Allen Blewitt committed ACCA to further work in the areas of sustainability reporting and accounting for externalities such as carbon emissions. He also announced the publication of a ground breaking new discussion paper, Improving Climate Change Reporting, produced by ACCA, the FTSE Group and EIRIS (Ethical Investment Research Services). The report analysed the performance of 42 companies already renowned for their sustainability reporting, and is designed to help regulators, corporates and NGOs improve their performance in this area.
http://www.accaglobal.com/vpalgore/
Related photographs
(click on each photograph to see a bigger version)
Photo 1: Vice President Al Gore
Photo 2: L-R: Edward Yau, Vice President Al Gore, ACCA chief executive Allen Blewitt
Photo 3: L-R: Morison Chan, Vice President Al Gore, Prof K C Chan, ACCA chief executive Allen Blewitt, Kelly Chan