Media Release

September 9 2009

We're saving the planet, but who's counting the cost?

It won't be an eco-warrior who'll save the planet, but an eco-accountant, according to a UniSA Professor According to a UniSA Professor, it won’t be an eco-warrior who’ll save the planet, but an eco-accountant.

Professor Janek Ratnatunga, Head of the School of Commerce, believes that emerging carbon trading schemes will require the development of a new economic paradigm and a suite of eco-financial specialists to regulate it.

Prof Ratnatunga will discuss Carbonomics – the emerging economic paradigm of the greenhouse effect - at a free public lecture this coming Tuesday (September 15).

In the wake of the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, various emissions schemes have emerged. A ‘cap and trade’ emissions scheme, for example involves ‘carbon credits’ that give monetary value to polluting the air.

Prof Ratnatunga says that, despite the emergence of such schemes, Australian companies have been given little guidance on how to treat carbon related intangible assets.

“This raises issues over the value of the right to emit CO2,” he says.

“For example, a company whose emissions are lower will have excess carbon credits. A company who is emitting more may want to ‘buy’ these credits. But how much does it cost, and how do we fit this in our current economic system?”

Prof Ratnatunga says that current Australian systems are unregulated and lack transparency.

“What will be needed to control this are eco-financial specialists like carbon analysts and auditors. The CPAs of the future will be the new carbon planetary activists.”

Jobs aside, Prof Ratnatunga says that governments, businesses and individuals will all be affected.

“Those who move fast to embrace the financial implications of the Kyoto Protocol will be the winners in this new economic paradigm,” he says.

The lecture is the seventh in the UniSA Gift of Knowledge lecture series, part of UniSA’s drive to give the community access to key local and global issues.