Context
What does Accounting for Sustainable Development mean for you? On this page we provide a summary of some of the key themes that our conference will touch on, and the implications for Scottish local government. It will develop as we get closer to the Conference itself (November 13th & 14th 2008).
A Light Introduction
This short film was produced to launch the Prince of Wales Accounting for Sustainability project. For more information on this initiative (including the final report on its findings and the decision-making tool they've devised as a result), go to Accounting for Sustainability - particularly relevant for this audience is the page on local case studies. This work will be profiled by speaker Roger Adams (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) at the SSN Annual Conference.
SSN's View
SSN was recently invited to contribute an article on accounting for sustainable development to the Institute for Chartered Accountants Scotland's magazine. You can read our article here: Accounting for Sustainable Development: the Future for the Profession?
Finance & Accountancy Bodies: What's cutting edge practice?
The Association for Chartered Certified Accountants is a leading light in the field of Accounting for Sustainable Development. In 2002, ACCA became the first professional body to be awarded the prestigious Queen's Award for Sustainable Development. On ACCA's website, you'll find a sustainability library and a snappy summary on what sustainability accounting means for local government. ACCA will be featured at the SSN's 2008 annual conference, with Roger Adams (Executive Director, Policy) providing the closing address on day one. See Roger's profile here.
The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountantcy (CiPFA) is supportive of the SSN Conference and keen to improve public sector practice on sustainability. They have been advocating for a robust sustainability reporting framework for public services for a number of years, arguing that what is reported on shapes the direction of the public sector.
Carbon Accounting: Where do I start?
The field of climate change economics and public sector carbon accounting has been driven by the 2006 publication of The Stern Review of the Economics of Climate Change.
The Stern report has had a significant influence on public sector carbon accounting practice. Defra's Shadow Price of Carbon Methodology (devised in 2007), which will be profiled at the Conference, applies the Stern Review's proxy cost for a tonne of carbon to public policy making.
Carbon accounting will be driven more broadly in the public sector through the Carbon Reduction Commitment (due to kick off in 2010). The CRC will apply to all organisations whose annual half-hourly metered electricity use, and 70 kilowatt metered electricity use in Northern Ireland, is above 6,000 MWh. This will implicate many Scottish local authorities. For more information, see the Defra CRC pages.
What will the CRC mean for local government? The LGiU is supporting local authorities' understanding of this through their Carbon Trading Councils initiative, a scheme that enables Councils to explore carbon budgeting and trading (as per the CRC) in a low-risk and supported environment, prior to statutory duties. For more information, go to the LGiU's Centre for Local Sustainability pages.
Cutting-edge local authority practice
Kirklees Council is taking preemptive action to implement the CRC: a carbon emissions target - and related carbon tax - will apply to all services (Kirklees will discuss the development of this initiative at day one of the Conference).
