Accounting for Sustainability project: speeches by Prince Charles and Tony Blair

Accounting for Sustainability project: speeches by Prince Charles and Tony Blair; ENGLAND: London: Clarence House: INTPrince Charles, Prince of Wales, speech SOT- I should say to begin with how delighted and grateful I am to you all for coming here this afternoon, in view of the fact that I am speaking immediately after lunch, I have been particularly careful to choose an exciting and interesting topic and so am going to speak to you about Accountancy - or, to be more specific, about Accountancy and Sustainability, as I have three qualified accountants and three under training in my Office, I am not exactly short of advice- I will start, if I may, by explaining why I believe that there is a link between the two which, at first sight, may seem unconnected / As some of you may know, I am one of those people who has been deeply concerned about climate change and global warming for many years and believe that they are the greatest challenges which face mankind and indeed all the other species that share this planet with us; however, in present company I am sure that I do not need to rehearse the arguments, the evidence and the science about global warming and climate change are now, it seems (and not just to me) indisputable / The report that the Government commissioned from Sir Nicholas Stern has recently added much to our understanding, with his in-depth analysis of the economic consequences- Twenty years ago concern about climate change, together with issues such as organic farming, local food-sourcing and ethical supply chains, were seen very much as fringe concerns far from the mainstream of political and commercial life (I know, because I was beyond the fringe), but thankfully, this seems to have changed and what we are doing to our environment is the subject of increasingly urgent and mainstream debate, it is not a moment too soon- And it is not, of course, just a matter of global warming, the facts about other forms of environmental degradation a...