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In November 2018, Alan Nelson visited Sydney, Australia to take part in the World Congress of Accountants. This blog series focuses on his thoughts, views and what he learnt down under.

The afternoon of the final day of The World Congress of Accountants kicked off with a session entitled Global Risks and Future Shocks.

The main part of the session was a panel discussion facilitated by Australian journalist and TV presenter, Tony Jones. Before bringing on the other panellists, Jones paid Ban Ki-Moon, the 8th Secretary General of the United Nations, the compliment of a ten-minute session alone.

It didn't take him long to move onto his main theme, climate change. When asked whether amidst all the upheaval and strife in the world, climate change is still the most important issue, he laid out his argument, simply and patiently. A prolonged drought, causes crops to fail. That affects the economic conditions of people which has social implications and leads political instability. Everything flows from climate change.

On a different note, he pointed out that if we fail to meet the 1.5% target for the rise in temperature, that would make a difference that would see coastal cities underwater – that includes Hong Kong, Singapore, New York, and of course Sydney, where we were all sitting.

Asked about President Trump's decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord, he described it as, "politically short-sighted, economically irresponsible and scientifically dead wrong." He talked of building bridges not walls and described too many people who come onto the global stage and talk like global leaders, but then go home and act like national leaders.

Three more panellists were introduced, most interesting among them Yanis Varoufakis, the former Greek Finance Minister. He talked compellingly about the need for a debate about the institutions that serve us, which is currently being drowned out by the populist right on the one hand and the defensiveness of the EU on the other. But it was his straight talking witty answers to questions that really caught the ear.

Asked whether crypto-currencies are likely to be a major destabilising influence on the world economy, he said "It's irrelevant. You can invest your money in it if you want to lose it, are smart enough to get in, make some money and get out, but it is not interesting."

Asked about Theresa May's comment that a citizen of the world is a citizen of nowhere, he said, "The only way to be a good citizen of the UK, is to be a good global citizen. There is no trade-off."

It was a lively session and a fitting end to the World Congress, which has made a serious and effective effort to address some of the major issues facing not only the accounting profession but the international community as a whole.

The lead attraction was definitely Ban Ki-Moon, but just before we were introduced to him, there was an additional unannounced appearance, via pre-recorded video message, by none other than Prince Charles. And his speech left us with some food for thought.

HRH spoke passionately about the pressing issue of climate change. He quoted the IFAC code of ethics as requiring accountants to act in the public interest. What could be more in the public interest than sustainability?

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