ACCA and KPMG have jointly hosted a high-level debate that considered the key issues UK business needs to address to meet the climate change challenge.
 
Entitled Climate Change Challenges: How Should Business Respond in 2010 and Beyond?, the event took place on 11 February at KPMG's London offices with an expert panel featuring Keith Clarke, chief executive officer of Atkins Plc, Emma Howard Boyd, head of socially responsible investment and governance and director, Jupiter Asset Management, and Miles Templeman, director general of the Institute of Directors.  
The debate was moderated by James Naughtie of BBC Radio 4's Today programme, and addressed questions such as what influence corporate climate change policy has on investors; how customers are evolving; and what are the reputational and bottom-line benefits of adopting a leadership position on climate change.
 
An audience of business leaders, sustainability professionals and policymakers were joined by ACCA members in what was a lively, challenging and interactive event.
 
'Despite widely held fears that the failure of the Copenhagen climate talks to agree a formal and binding international emissions regime would lead to a policy vacuum, the panellists at this event all felt that the climate debate has developed an irresistible momentum,' said Roger Adams, ACCA executive director - policy.
 
'Absence of international agreement is largely compensated for by a growing framework of national or regional regulation, coupled with an intense focus on best practice driven by strong market signals.'