Why chartered accountants must become climate activists

The extreme weather events this year, from flooding in Germany to heatwaves in Canada, demonstrated that we’re already living through a climate crisis. And, as a growing array of climate change activists make clear, we all need to do much more about one of the biggest problems our world has ever faced.

In this video, we feature Evelyn Acham, a Ugandan climate activist, who has seen first-hand people’s livelihoods destroyed by drought and flooding that are direct results of the globe’s changing climate.

We have also spoken to Adair Turner, first chair of the UK Climate Change Committee and now chair of the Energy Transitions Commission about his views on the challenge we face and the role that senior people in business and finance should play.

Finally, ICAEW chief executive, Michael Izza, talks about what chartered accountants can and should be doing, and why their work in helping the rest of the world calibrate the costs of any decision puts them in the vanguard of professionals using their expertise to solve this problem.

“Whether they like it or not, chartered accountants are already climate change activists. They’re radicals,” he says.