John Buttle

This article is part of the Climate project of Spinwatch.

John Buttle is a carbon trading advocate of Australian birth, linked to co-advocate, carbon trading king Frank Joshua. Similarly to Joshua he has played a key role in shaping, and then profiting from the introduction of carbon trading as part of the Kyoto Protocol.

He is a member of United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Policy Forum and, like Joshua, was a founding member of the Council of Management of the International Emissions Trading Association. He is also a founding member of the Climate Investment Partnership (Geneva), of which Joshua is CEO and co-founder.

He has advised some of Australia’s largest mining companies and institutional investors on the implications of emissions trading and 'designed the audit protocol for the worldwide audit of the greenhouse gas emissions of a major oil company'.

Since Feb 2009 he has been Managing Director of capitalC, a management Consultancy and was previously managing director of financial service provider Protiviti (April 2007 — June 2008) (1 year 3 months). From 2002-2007 he was a partner with Ernst & Young, and prior to that a partner with Arthur Andersen (2000-2002)- where he would have again worked alongside Frank Joshua. Prior to that he was a partner with KPMG from 1973-1999.

According to the Australian Institute of Company Directors:

John was a former member of Triple Bottom Line Issues Group of the Australian Institute of Chartered Accountants, the NSW Salinity Taskforce and the Carbon Trading Advisory Group of the Sydney Futures Exchange. In addition, he was the Deputy Chairman on the board of the Co-operative Research Centre for Greenhouse Accounting.

John is the Managing Director of Protiviti in Sydney, an international firm of independent risk consultants, where he leads the Environment and Sustainable Development Practice and also specialises in Financial Services.

John is currently a member on the boards of Clean Up Australia and Clean Up the World and also a member of the steering committee of the Business Leaders’ Forum for Sustainable Development. He was also involved in the development of St James Ethics Centre’s Corporate Responsibility Index.

Buttle banned from auditing due to HIH scandal

In 2008 John Buttle was forced to sign an enforceable undertaking with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission after his audit on behalf of Arthur Andersen claimed that Australia's largest insurance firm HIH's $939 million net assets in 2000 were true and fair, just five months before HIH experienced a $5.3 billion collapse in March 2001. As a result of the legal proceedings his registration as an auditor was cancelled until March 2010.

Australian newspaper 'The Age' claims:

'Mr Buttle, who began auditing in 1983 and switched from heading KPMG's banking and finance audit practice less than two years before Andersen and HIH collapsed, has not signed any audit reports since 2004.'

ASIC noted in Mr Buttle's favour that he had provided it with statements relevant to criminal proceedings relating to HIH's collapse. He had also "insisted" in December 2000 that the HIH board report a $10 million investment with a company called Pacific Eagle Equities to ASIC.

Legal action over that investment led to HIH's chief executive, Ray Williams, being banned from company directorships for 10 years and an HIH director, Rodney Adler, being banned for 20 years.