ICAS

Quicklinks

  1. About Us

    Find out about who we are and what we do here at ICAS.

  2. Find a CA

    Search our directory of individual CAs and Member organisations by name, location and professional criteria.

  3. CA Magazine

    View the latest issues of the dedicated magazine for ICAS Chartered Accountants.

  4. Contact Us

    Get in touch with ICAS by phone, email or post, with dedicated contacts for Members, Students and firms.

Login
  • Annual renewal
  • About us
  • Contact us
  • Find a CA
  1. About us
    1. Governance
    2. ICAS Strategy 2030
  2. Members
    1. Become a member
    2. Newly qualified
    3. Manage my membership
    4. Benefits of membership
    5. Career support
    6. Mentoring
    7. CA Wellbeing
    8. More for Members
    9. Area networks
    10. International communities
    11. Get involved
    12. Top Young CAs
    13. Career breaks
    14. ICAS podcast
    15. Newly admitted members 2022
    16. Newly admitted members 2023
  3. CA Students
    1. Student information
    2. Student resources
    3. Learning requirements
    4. Learning updates
    5. Learning blog
    6. Totum Pro | Student discount card
    7. CA Student wellbeing
  4. Become a CA
    1. How to become a CA
    2. Routes to becoming a CA
    3. CA Stories
    4. Find a training agreement
    5. Why become a CA
    6. Qualification information
    7. University exemptions
  5. Employers
    1. Become an Authorised Training Office
    2. Resources for Authorised Training Offices
    3. Professional entry
    4. Apprenticeships
    5. Learning redefined
  6. Find a CA
  7. ICAS events
    1. CA Summit
    2. Digital practice conference 2023
  8. CA magazine
  9. Insight
    1. Finance + Trust
    2. Technology
    3. Finance + EDI
    4. Finance + Mental Fitness
    5. Finance + Leadership
    6. Finance + Sustainability
  10. Professional resources
    1. Anti-money laundering
    2. Audit and assurance
    3. Brexit
    4. Business and governance
    5. Charities
    6. Coronavirus
    7. Corporate and financial reporting
    8. Cyber security
    9. Ethics
    10. Insolvency
    11. ICAS Research
    12. Pensions
    13. Practice
    14. Public sector
    15. Sustainability
    16. Tax
  11. CPD - professional development
    1. CPD - Everything you need to know
    2. CPD courses and qualifications
    3. CPD news and updates
    4. CPD support and advice
    5. Career support
  12. Regulation
    1. Complaints and sanctions
    2. Regulatory authorisations
    3. Guidance and help sheets
    4. Regulatory monitoring
  13. CA jobs
    1. CA jobs partner: Rutherford Cross
    2. Resources for your job search
    3. Advertise with CA jobs
    4. Hays | A Trusted ICAS CA Jobs Partner
    5. Azets | What's your ambition?
  14. Work at ICAS
    1. Business centres
    2. Meet our team
    3. Benefits
    4. Vacancies
    5. Imagine your career at ICAS
  15. Contact us
    1. Technical and regulation queries
    2. ICAS logo request

The importance of education and training to reach net zero

  • LinkedIn (opens new window)
  • Twitter (opens new window)
By ICAS

7 April 2023

ICAS welcomes UK Government’s Strategy’s emphasis on the importance of education and training to reach net zero.

As a signatory to the Sustainable Finance Education Charter (SFEC), we are pleased to see that the UK Government’s updated Green Finance Strategy has a greater emphasis on the importance of capacity and capability-building to support the UK’s net zero ambitions, and recognises the key and unique role played by UK-based professional bodies.

This latest version of the Green Finance Strategy outlines the UK’s plan to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The strategy mainstreams climate and environmental factors as a financial imperative, with an emphasis on mobilising private finance for clean and resilient growth and cementing UK leadership in green finance. However, as the Sustainable Finance Education Charter reveals in its new report on the UK’s Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) skills set in the financial services sector, UK employers, educators and the government need to do more to secure the UK’s future as a global sustainable finance centre, and to deliver the commitments made by financial services firms.

The research, conducted by 14 leading financial Chartered and professional bodies, representing more than a million finance professionals, to support the development of the UK Government’s recently revised Green Finance Strategy, highlights four key findings which reveal that; the majority of respondents do not consider their organisations to be highly prepared for future requirements in green and sustainable finance (a cause for concern given the UK’s net zero ambitions and the sustainability commitments and strategies of many financial services employers); the majority of respondents felt their organisation was not targeting training budgets towards training employees in green and sustainable finance to support their organisation’s sustainability strategy; the green and sustainable finance skills gap is wider than the knowledge gap; and finally, capacity and capability-building are a higher priority in other countries and the UK may fall behind if this isn’t addressed by employers, professional bodies, educators and the UK Government.

Professional bodies are already playing their part as demonstrated in the Sustainable Finance Education Charter 2nd Progress Report. Signatories, including ICAS, are incorporating sustainability into initial and continuing professional development programmes.

Together we acknowledge the collective responsibility of the global community, including banking, finance and professional services sectors to deliver society’s goals as expressed in the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris Climate Agreement and the Global Biodiversity Framework. Indeed, the Charter has recently announced its formal name change to better reflect the need for professional bodies to engage with our members on issues beyond climate, including on biodiversity, nature-based finance and social sustainability.

Sarah Wilkin CA, Director of Sustainability at ICAS, said: “Upskilling our members to respond to the challenges and opportunities of sustainable development is of utmost importance to ICAS. We recognise that the accounting profession has a key role to play in contributing to achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and is well placed to be at the heart of the changes needed in the business and finance sectors to meet net zero targets. We are committed to advocating for sustainability policy with governments, standard setters, regulators and businesses, and are pleased the UK Government recognise the need for capacity building to maintain the UK’s position as a leader in green and sustainable finance.”

Collectively the UK’s professional bodies have the appetite, expertise, and resources – and seek to encourage other bodies to join the Charter to work together to support its objectives. We hope that professional bodies and their members everywhere recognise this shared, global challenge, and the strategic, commercial and moral imperative to develop clean, resilient and prosperous economies that work for all.

About the Sustainable Finance Education Charter

Announced in the UK Government’s 2019 original Green Finance Strategy, and launched in June 2020, the Green Finance Education Charter (GFEC) was a world first. Reflecting the need for professional bodies to engage with our members on issues beyond climate, including on biodiversity, nature-based finance and social sustainability, the Charter was recently relaunched as the Sustainable Finance Education Charter (SFEC).

The Charter is designed to build the capacity and capability of the green and sustainable finance sector in the UK and internationally. The SFEC currently comprises 14 professional bodies, representing around 1 million finance professionals and includes signatory members from those in the accounting, actuarial science, audit, banking, insurance, investment, risk management and treasury sectors.

Individually and collectively SFEC member bodies play critical roles in setting and embedding professional, technical and market standards and norms in UK and global finance.

The SFEC also acknowledges the collective responsibility of the global community, including banking, finance and professional services sectors to deliver society’s goals as expressed in the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris Climate Agreement and the Global Biodiversity Framework.

The report on the UK’s Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) skills set in the financial services sector was led and sponsored by the Chartered Body Alliance (Chartered Banker Institute, Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment and Chartered Insurance Institute) on behalf of the SFEC signatories. An online survey was conducted between 17th October 2022 until 28th November 2022. The sample comprised of 69 organisations of which the majority are operating in professional services (29%), banking (17%) and asset management (16%). Organisations surveyed were mainly small and medium sized organisations (66%) ranging from 1 to 999 employees.

Find out more about the Sustainable Finance Education Charter on the Chartered Banker website.

One year since the launch of the first Green Finance Education Charter

By Anne Adrain, Head of Sustainability and Reporting

15 June 2021

New sustainability disclosure requirements a good start, but don’t go far enough

By ICAS

30 March 2023

Footer links

  • Contact us
  • Terms and conditions
  • Modern slavery statement
  • Privacy notice
  • CA magazine

Connect with ICAS

  • Facebook (opens new window) Facebook Icon
  • Twitter (opens new window) Twitter Icon
  • LinkedIn (opens new window) LinkedIn Icon
  • Instagram (opens new window) Instagram Icon

ICAS is a member of the following bodies

  • Consultative Committee of Accountancy Bodies (opens new window) Consultative Committee of Accountancy Bodies logo
  • Chartered Accountants Worldwide (opens new window) Chartered Accountants Worldwide logo
  • Global Accounting Alliance (opens new window) Global Accounting Alliance
  • International Federation of Accountants (opens new window) IFAC
  • Access Accountancy (opens new window) Access Acountancy

Charities

  • ICAS Foundation (opens new window) ICAS Foundation
  • SCABA (opens new window) scaba

Accreditations

  • ISO 9001 - RGB (opens new window)
© ICAS 2022

The mark and designation “CA” is a registered trade mark of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS), and is available for use in the UK and EU only to members of ICAS. If you are not a member of ICAS, you should not use the “CA” mark and designation in the UK or EU in relation to accountancy, tax or insolvency services. The mark and designation “Chartered Accountant” is a registered trade mark of ICAS, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales and Chartered Accountants Ireland. If you are not a member of one of these organisations, you should not use the “Chartered Accountant” mark and designation in the UK or EU in relation to these services. Further restrictions on the use of these marks also apply where you are a member.

Our cookie policy

ICAS.com uses cookies which are essential for our website to work. We would also like to use analytical cookies to help us improve our website and your user experience. Any data collected is anonymised. Please have a look at the further information in our cookie policy and confirm if you are happy for us to use analytical cookies: