Impact accounting 'urgently' needed - Roche's Hoffmann
LONDON, Sept 7 (Reuters) - The world "urgently" needs to agree an accounting system focused on corporate impact to push companies to do more to cut emissions and protect nature, Roche (ROG.S) Vice-Chair Andre Hoffmann said on Thursday.
Hoffmann, a billionaire environmentalist whose family founded the Swiss healthcare company in 1896, told delegates at the Reuters IMPACT summit that with emissions still rising, he saw "very few reasons" for optimism in the near term.
"We're still working on the budget of 100 million barrels of oil a month. This is not looking very good, and we don't really seem to have ticked into this urgency that needs to be demonstrated if you really want to move forward," he said.
One bright spot was the potential for a new form of accounting that more accurately reflects the impact a company has on the planet and society, something the European Union is baking into a new corporate disclosure regime.
"We need to urgently agree to an accounting system which will allow us to measure the consequences of what we are doing as corporates on the social capital, the human capital, and the... natural capital," Hoffmann said.
"If we do get into a real measurement of impact, and if you can manage for impact rather than managing for financial income... I think that could well be the best chances of success we have."
Getting there would likely require a reassessment of the role of a company and the fiduciary duty of board directors, he added, saying fiduciary duty should not just be about maximising returns but also "contributing to society in a positive manner".
Currently natural capital such as water and clean air is treated as free, which is a "basic flaw in the system", Hoffmann said.
Failure to protect nature could result in annual global losses of $2.7 trillion a year by 2030 if ecological tipping points were reached, according to a World Bank report in 2021.
The next round of global climate talks in Dubai in November - COP28 - will be crucial to accelerate change, although Hoffmann said he had so far been underwhelmed by their ambition.
"We need to show action, and I'm not sure that what I've read so far of the COP28 will be strong enough for that."
To view the live broadcast of the Road to COP Stage go to the Reuters IMPACT news page: https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/reuters-impact/
Reporting by Simon Jessop; Editing by Jan Harvey
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