But to solve a problem, you first have to identify the problem, and then work out solution, and then work out how you are going to reach the solution. Then you have to look at the progress you are making in that direction. And that is where the accountants come in. We need them.

We've heard a lot from the scientists. They've had to shout a bit to make themselves heard, but I think they have identified the problem: our emissions of CO2 and other gases are causing the climate to change because of the greenhouse effect.

Ironically, the deafest people seem to have been the ones responsible for getting together with the scientists and agreeing on a solution: the politicians. They haven't quite got it nailed down yet, but the consensus seems to be to cap global emissions at less than 500 parts per million in the atmosphere of CO2-equivalent greenhouse gases by 2050 and to reduce them thereafter.

And we seem to be doing quite well on coming up with a plan to reach that solution too. There are all sorts of new technologies and new ways of doing things in the air; and an overall plan that will probably settle somewhere between carbon trading, emissions capping and carbon taxation.

And this is where the accountants come in. Whatever the final plan looks like (I wonder if we'll ever know?) what we will have achieved is to turn carbon into money. An asset for some, a liability for others. We're trying to keep as much of the carbon as possible in one place and not in another. That's capitalism.

We need people who can look at an entire production process - every entire production process - and calculate what emissions are involved at each stage. The good old days of time-and-motion studies may be coming back. I think we'll need a set of independent standards for how the calculation process is done, so that like measurement can be compared with like measurement. We'll need to make continual incremental improvements, shaving an ounce of carbon here and trading for a better offset somewhere else.

And the stakes - the future of everything - are too high to be left to the accuracy of every individual. The future is carbon auditing. Through every part of business, wherever an accountant deals with money now, they will soon deal with money and carbon. Auditing, income and expenditure, carbon balances, the minimisation of carbon taxation. Carbon budgetting. It's up to them. Now is the hour.

Who can save us? Bring on the accountants!