Week-end readings 23.09.09

Ernst & Young publishes Meeting today’s Financial challenges. 13 pages.

The main theme is : Global trends are transforming the Financial and accounting environment.

Main topics of the report :

-    Economic pressures – Companies and specific ectors are continuing to experience challenges such as securing debt financing, managing cash flow and liquidity, valuing assets, etc. Many companies have been forced to recognize asset impairments, restructure their operations and recognize declining fair values, especially for illiquid or complex financial instruments.

-    Geopolitical devlopment – The increased emphasis on emerging markets, the influence of emerging market mutiinationals and the emergence of new power brokers – sovereign wealth funds (SWF), private equity (PE), etc. - is significantly changing the global financial and economic landscape.

-    Regulatory convergence – Regulatory pressure is increasing in response to the financial crisis, and is expanding beyond the banking an asset managment sectors.

-    Risk management and internal control - As a result of the current business environment, the growing importance of emerging markets and regulatory developments, there is a renewed and intensified corporate focus on risk management

Climate risk Prty Ltd,  from Australia, has produced a report for the World Wildlife Fund International, Climate Solutions 2 : Low-Carbon Re-Industrialisation.

Excerpts from the foreword by the WWF :

"We are poised at a decisive moment in our planet’s history. In a few weeks, the Copenhagen climate change talks will seek to set the foundation stone for the world’s response to man-made climate change.

The progress of climate change has not paused while our leaders have debated the issues over the past decades. The clock has continued to tick, inexorably counting down to the moment when, even if we do act, it may be too late to avoid runaway climate change.

Climate Solutions 2 models this point of no return. It shows that the constraints of our industries, working in a market economy, leave us with just five years before the speed of transition required puts a viable solution beyond our reach. No matter how strong our desire for a transformation to a low-carbon world may be, the ability to make this transformation is restricted by available resources, manpower and technologies. That is why we only have until 2014 to set the wheels in motion. Beyond this, a “warfooting” may be the only option remaining, with no guarantee of success."