The Financial Stability Board (FSB) announced today the membership of its task force on climate-related disclosure, in which it’s noticeable a predominance of chartered accountants and CFOs.

FSB’s task force will be chaired by Michael Bloomberg (also chair of the US Sustainability Accounting Standards Board).

The aim of this task force is to help companies disclose consistent climate-related financial disclosures for their stakeholders, in light of the numerous sustainability frameworks available nowadays.

The idea of such as a task force could have been foreseen in Mark Carney’s speech of September 2015 to an audience of insurers in London, when he warned about the risks climate change involves, if unchecked.

Carney, also governor of the Bank of England, then said that climate change is the "tragedy of the horizon" and there is no need for "an army of actuaries" to predict its catastrophic impacts on future generations.

"The horizon for monetary policy extends out to 2-3 years. For financial stability it is a bit longer, but typically only to the outer boundaries of the credit cycle – about a decade.

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"In other words, once climate change becomes a defining issue for financial stability, it may already be too late," he said.

The membership of FSB’s task force includes several accountants, a profession that is closely following the sustainability agenda.

One of the task force vice-chairs is Unilever CFO Graeme Pitkethly, a chartered accountant and former management consultant at PwC.

Russell Picot, HSBC group CFO and also a chartered accountant, is the special adviser of the task force. Picot, who developed a fourteen-year career at KPMG, is also a member of the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC).

Wim Bartels, KPMG global head of sustainability reporting and assurance, has also joined as an expert of the task force.

Among the category of data preparers, there are three accountancy professionals:

Koushik Chatterjee, a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, whose day job is group executive director of finance and corporate at Tata Steel. Chatterjee is also an IIRC member.

Liliana Franco, a member of France’s Commission of International Accounting Standards (a body that belongs to the French standard-setting authority, the Autorité des Normes Comptables or ANC).

Thomas Kusterer, EnBW CFO, former KPMG auditor, and a US Certified Public Accountant.