18 February - Ask ICAS: Company climate change reporting and audit – What you need to know about the future

Event summary

In 2020 the FRC undertook a thematic review of climate-related considerations by boards, companies, auditors, professional bodies and investors.

Hannah Armitage from the Financial Reporting Lab of the FRC, and Julia Morris, a Senior Inspector in the FRC’s Audit Quality Review (AQR) team, joined ICAS’ Anne Adrain to present the findings of the review.

They also led a discussion around the expectations of the FRC in relation to climate considerations and what this means for ICAS and our Members.

(Duration: 1 hour. Originally recorded 18 February 2021)

Key themes and topics

• How auditors and boards are taking account of climate-related challenges
• How companies are developing their reporting
• What investors want to see in relation to climate change
• ICAS’ response to the report

Who are the speakers?

• Hannah Armitage

Hannah joined the lab in 2017 and has led the Lab’s work on climate-related reporting, workforce-related reporting and performance metrics. She moved from the FRC’s Corporate Governance Team, where she worked on reviews of the UK Stewardship Code and UK Corporate Governance Code.

Hannah is a qualified lawyer and prior to joining the FRC, worked in the Australian Department of the Treasury on corporations and corporate law policy.

• Julia Morris

Julia Morris is a Senior Inspector in the FRC’s Audit Quality Review (AQR) team, with particular focus on banks and credit institutions. She led the work on the audit stream of the FRC’s Climate Thematic Review, which benchmarked the development of the largest seven audit firms’ response to climate change considerations.

Going forward, the FRC has identified climate risk as an Areas of Focus for its 2021/22 audit quality inspection cycle and Julia is the Area of Focus lead for this work.

Julia originally trained and qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Ernst & Young. She has a Batchelor’s degree in Mathematics and Economics from the University of Bristol and a Master’s degree in Journalism from New York University.

(Please note that views and opinions expressed by speakers at ICAS webinars are their own and not necessarily reflective of ICAS’ views.)

Who’s this for?

• Auditors
• Anyone responsible for corporate reporting
• CAs employed at Board level
• Investors

Counts as CPD activity

Depending upon your individual role and training and development needs, watching this webinar can count towards your annual Continuing Professional Development (CPD) requirement.

Related content - develop your knowledge

The Financial Reporting Council's Climate Thematic Review 2020