During the Sustainability Middle East annual conference held recently in Dubai, Regional Expert on Biofuels, Karl W Feilder sought to know about carbon emission accountability from a panel of business leaders. Excerpts of the discussion…

Karl W Feilder: How do we move from banks asking people for their last three years financial accounts, to asking them give their last three years carbon accounts?

Sir Malachi Halliday: This has been very challenging especially when we are financing companies at a smaller scale. For larger corporates there is certainly larger infrastructure in place. The key to this lies in monitoring.

For the smaller end of the businesses we are looking at quantifying their impact, specifically on the carbon account through factoring their carbon credits.

“We are helping shift traditional business models into more sustainable business models,” he added.

It is a matter of concern that we have lost 69% of our wildlife in the last 50 years, and it is getting worse. The oceans are expected to be 150% more acidic by 2100. All of these issues, directly affect us from an investment perspective, Sir Halliday further added.