Expert in sustainability accounting Emma Herd joins Financial Reporting Council

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Professional services firm EY has scored a trifecta in appointments to boards involved in the development of accounting and auditing standards in Australia that are aimed at boosting the expertise on regulatory bodies on sustainability reporting.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers announced the appointment of EY partner Emma Herd to the Financial Reporting Council last week.

Herd is an expert in sustainability reporting and climate change, and is one of a number of new faces appointed to increase the expertise in sustainability reporting as Australian and global regulators begin the push towards one set of sustainability standards.

“Her appointment will continue the high level of skills and experience available to the FRC to help ensure that the key sectors of our economy are effectively regulated,” Chalmers said.

“The Albanese Government is committed to developing a clear and credible framework for climate disclosure for businesses that is consistent with emerging international standards. Ms Herd’s expertise will assist the FRC in regards to this priority area.”

Herd’s appointment comes shortly after the announcement of the appointment of five new members for the boards overseen by the Financial Reporting Council.

The Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB) gets three out of the five sustainability experts, with KPMG partner Adrian King, PwC partner Liza Maimone, and EY’s leader on climate change and sustainability Mathew Nelson taking seats at the AASB table.

Two new members of the Auditing and Assurance Standards Board also have sustainability expertise, with the freshly minted members Deloitte’s Chi Mun Woo and EY’s Terence Jeyaretnam also recently announced by the FRC.

Members of both boards are grappling with new standards being developed by the London-based International Sustainability Standards Board that will form the basis for one single body of standards for global use.

It is a similar process to the development of International Financial Reporting Standards that Australia formally agreed to adopt by 2005 following an FRC directive to the AASB in June 2002.

The federal government’s announcement of the new FRC member coincides with two major accounting bodies in Australia highlighting sustainability and climate change reporting issues at the time of the World Congress of Accountants.

CPA Australia’s president Merran Kelsall said accountants play an important part in ensuring all of the relevant systems and processes are in place for accurate and transparent reporting of climate change.

“Climate change is more than an environmental risk — it’s also an economic risk. This unique risk dimension is undoubtedly requiring governments, organisations of all types and sizes and society at large to respond in a manner that safeguards our planet, economies, and livelihoods,” Kelsall said

Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand issued a publication that covers how not-for-profits should approach looking at their carbon footprint as well as ways in which they should implement processes that aim to share, reduce, reuse and recycle resources.

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Accounting bodies work to join Australia up to sustainability-disclosure standards