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ICAEW Climate Summit

13-17 November 2023

There is no longer a question that climate change is having a real impact on society now and into the future. This week of virtual sessions will provide practical advice on how you as a finance professional can prepare for the transition to net zero, implement plans and drive ambitious action on climate and nature.

Book now Join the Sustainability and Climate Change Community

Highlights

The ICAEW Climate Summit will deep dive into the heart of the issues for those working in business, practice, financial institutions and NGOs to enable you to drive meaningful action on climate and biodiversity issues in your organisation, with clients and enable an economy wide transition. Start taking action today.
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Financing the transition

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Energy transition

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Climate tech and data

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Getting in touch with nature

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A new age of accounting

Programme 2023

Monday 13 November - Financing the transition

How do we boost growth in transition finance?
This panel session will focus on what we mean by transition finance and what financial institutions and regulators need to do to ensure a stable, and rapid transition to net zero. Speakers: Hiten Sonpal at MHA, Pyarali Jamal, Jessica Fries at A4S
09:00 - 10:00
Funding for net zero
Join Tony Greenham, British Business Bank, to explore support for SMEs including funding opportunities to help you and your clients reach net zero. Speaker: Tony Greenham at British Business Bank
11:00 - 12:00

Tuesday 14 November - Energy transition

What’s stopping renewables?
Join this session to learn more about the current state of the energy market, the blockers and opportunities for rapid decarbonisation of the power sector and how finance professions have a role to play in the energy transition. Speaker: Ian Brown at UK infrastructure Bank
09:00 - 10:00
Reducing your energy demand
To decarbonise the energy sector, we must look at demand side reforms to the system. In this session we will look at how businesses can reduce their energy consumption, ways to improve energy efficiency and what financial support is out there to help you on the journey. Speakers: Chris Taylor at Broadway Initiative, Craig Needham at Real Carbon Strategies
11:00 - 12:00

Wednesday 15 November - Climate tech and data

Future-proof your firm with carbon accounting
Trace is helping accountants to understand the emerging demands of non-financial reporting from their SME clients. Join this session to understand why carbon is a business risk, how to measure your footprint, set targets and manage your emissions. Learn how carbon accounting software can help your firm secure revenue, client retention and boost employee engagement on the road to net zero. Speakers: Cat Long at Trace, Taylor Fox-smith at Trace
09:00 - 10:00
Tools to support your transition plan
Hear from the companies who can support you with better data, tools and software to make carbon calculations and ESG reporting as simple as possible.
11:00 - 12:00

Thursday 16 November - Getting in touch with nature

Danger in our waters
Join this inspiring and thought-provoking session led by Monty Halls. Best known for his three BBC2 series 'Great Escapes', Monty will explore the impact of climate change on coastal communities and broader water-related systems, and how you can take critical action in your organisation and community to protect and restore nature.
09:00 - 10:00
Is a nature positive economy achievable?
To achieve net zero, we must protect and restore nature and recognise the importance of ecosystem services on people and the planet. Our expert panel will discuss what a nature positive economy entails, how it supports the transition to net zero and if it is possible to achieve. Speaker: Michael Ofosuhene-Wise at Business for Nature
11:00 - 12:00

Friday 17 November – A new age of accounting

Sustainability and innovation
Join this session to be inspired about the future of business. Learn how you can transform your organisation to be more sustainable and be inspired by innovations changing how we do things to have a more positive impact on people and the planet.
09:00 - 10:00
Disrupting the system: do we need to change accounting?
Lead by Roger Spitz, how do we change the system of doing business and by extension, accounting, to measure what we truly find valuable. Speakers: Roger Spitz at Techistential, Natalie Nicholles at Capitals Coalition
12:00 - 13:00

In partnership with

Sponsor Logo - MHA Bakertilly Trace logo
Find out more

Testimonials

An event that significantly enhances the understanding of the climate issue and its impacts on companies.

Climate Summit 2022 delegate

Great overview for those new to the Net Zero subject who know they want to get on and do their bit for the planet

Climate Summit 2022 delegate

An excellent initiative by the Institute and one to maintain annually.

Climate Summit 2022 delegate

An excellent array of webinars focusing on the problems at hand. I found them informative and inspiring.

Climate Summit 2021 delegate

Our speakers

Taylor Fox-Smith
Taylor Fox-Smith, Partnerships, Trace

Taylor is an experienced commercial leader and a fierce advocate for the role of accountants in a cleaner future. With her legal background and experience developing standards, Taylor sees accountants as the trusted advisor who can power emissions measurement at scale. Taylor’s area of expertise includes climate-related disclosure, carbon accounting software, sustainability reporting and climate risk management for SMEs.

Jessica Fries
Jessica Fries Executive Chair, A4S

Jessica Fries is Executive Chairman of The Prince’s Accounting for Sustainability Project (A4S), established by His Majesty, the then Prince of Wales in 2004. She has led A4S since 2008, working with the finance community to catalyze a shift to a sustainable economy, with a focus on practical actions and targeted interventions capable of achieving global change. While at A4S, Jessica has been responsible for establishing the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC), as well as A4S’s CFO Leadership Network and capital markets programme.

Tony Greenham
Tony Greenham ESG Director at the British Business Bank

Tony Greenham is ESG Director within the British Business Bank’s Impact and Insights team. He is focused on delivering the Bank’s objective to support the UK’s transition to a net zero economy. After starting his career at PwC, and then in equity capital markets at Barclays and Credit Suisse, Tony spent several years in the small business sector as a finance director. Since 2010 he has focused on sustainable and inclusive finance as both research director and practitioner at the New Economics Foundation, the Royal Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce and as co-founder and executive director of South West Mutual. He is a Senior Fellow of the Finance Innovation Lab.

Pyarali Jamal
Pyarali Jamal Senior Operations, ESG & Sustainable Finance Specialist

Pyarali has 28 years of experience across several sectors and geographies, including four years as a banker and ten years at EY in the Transaction Advisory Services group. Whilst at EY, Pyarali was Head of the EY Canada Corporate Finance Renewable Energy and Cleantech team, and a senior member of the national Real Estate and Public Sector teams. Since leaving EY in 2011, Pyarali has predominantly worked with large and small purpose-driven organisations on issues spanning governance and strategic planning, financing, operational improvement, expansion, business due diligence, and ESG integration.

Marc Lepere
Dr Marc Lepere Co-Founder & Chief Science Officer at Omnevue

Dr Marc Lepere is an Executive Fellow of King’s Business School, King's College London where he leads executive education on ESG and Sustainability. He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and serves as a visiting lecturer at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He is an Economics graduate of Trinity College, Dublin and holds a MSc from King’s. Marc has published in leading journals including Stanford Social Innovation Review, the Financial Times and Discovering Truth (series 1) which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Professionally, Marc has served as Chief Marketing Officer for Havas Worldwide; Executive Vice President for McCann Erickson WorldGroup and Deputy Chairman of Dentsu in Europe, Middle East and Africa. In 2021, he co-founded Omnevue.

Cat Long
Cat Long CEO & Co founder, Trace

Cat graduated from Oxford University with a Masters in Experimental Psychology and believes psychology and human centred design are the keys to solving the climate crisis. Prior to launching Trace, Cat spent over a decade consulting on strategic projects spanning financial services, technology and renewable energy and now commits her time and energy to helping companies reach Net Zero using Trace’s intuitive technology.

Michael Ofosuhene-Wise
Michael Ofosuhene-Wise Business Action Senior Manager, Business for Nature

Michael Ofosuhene-Wise, Business Action Senior Manager at Business for Nature (BfN), leads global business initiatives for nature and climate alignment. Formerly at WBCSD, he championed international climate policy and specializes in assessing corporate impacts on natural and social capital. Committed to public-private collaborations, he fosters dialogue on global challenges. MSc in Environmental Policy from Wageningen University (NL) and BSc in Environmental Sciences from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (GH).

Monty Halls
Monty Halls Broadcaster and Marine Biologist

Monty Halls is a broadcaster, speaker, naturalist, former Royal Marine, marine biologist, travel writer and leadership specialist. His experience covers over two decades of leading teams in some of the most remote environments on earth, presenting wildlife and adventure documentaries, and working with blue chip companies both in the UK and overseas.

Hiten Sonpal
Hiten Sonpal Head of Green Finance

As a result of his innovative approach, dedication, and contribution to the sector Hiten was named winner of the Sustainability executive of the year in 2015 and was highly commended for the transport project of the year in 2020 at the business green awards. Hiten’s responsibilities as Head of Green Finance are to enhance MHA’s green finance offering by providing tailored lending and advisory services to enable businesses to achieve their climate change goals and reduce costs through renewable energy initiatives.

Roger Spitz
Roger Spitz President, Techistential

Based in San Francisco, Roger Spitz (MSc, FCA) is an international bestselling author, President of Techistential (Climate & Foresight Strategy), and founder of the Disruptive Futures Institute. A world-leading authority on foresight, sustainability, and transformative innovation, Spitz is also chair of DFI Sustainability & Climate Academy. As former Head of Technology M&A with BNP Paribas, Spitz advised on over 50 transactions with deal values of $25bn, and has two decades of leading investment banking and VC businesses, advising CEOs, founders, boards, and shareholders on their most strategic deals.

Chris Taylor
Chris Taylor Net Zero Programme Director, Broadway Initiative

Chris leads the delivery of www.zerocarbonbusiness.uk, a leading portal for free advice for UK SMEs on energy saving and net zero. Zero Carbon Business is a shared endeavour of the UK’s main business organisations, energy networks, high street banks and professional bodies, delivered by the Broadway Initiative. Chris has worked for more than 20 years across research and policy development for environmental sustainability and developing information and data technology products and tools for businesses, central and local government.

Further resources

Green cityscape sitting on top of Earth's lower hemisphere
ICAEW Sustainability Certificate

This interactive and practical programme will equip you with the knowledge to better integrate sustainability strategies in day-to-day business, and therefore management accounting.

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Climate hub

Are you professionally ready to mitigate the risk and maximise the opportunity of climate change? Find resources, information and inspiration here.

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Climate champions

Read about our members and students acting on the climate crisis and be inspired by their valuable contributions. Are you working hard to decarbonise? Let us know; we want to celebrate your achievements.

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