UK firms are not adequately reporting their impact on climate change, according to a new report.
The report, released today by the Assocation of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), focuses on UK businesses renowned as leading environmental reporters. However, it ‘does not make entirely comfortable reading’, according to Roger Adams, ACCA executive director.
Businesses, especially energy-intensive companies, are now expected to disclose how they are mitigating their contributions to climate change in terms of policies, targets, product innovation, risk management and initiatives to reduce gas emissions.
But the results of the report were ‘mixed’, according to the ACCA. Encouragingly, 80% of companies surveyed had a climate change policy statement, but only 7% had a named senior person responsible for the policy.
And though 57% disclosed short or medium-term targets for carbon emissions, only 43% provided long-term (more than five years) targets. Adams commented:
“The companies we analysed included many of the leading sustainability and corporate social responsibility reporters, but while particular issues were handled well, no single company was found to be reporting evenly across all the key climate change issues – especially those relating to product impacts and initiatives to reduce carbon emissions. And reporting, even at this patchy level, is not widely practised or monitored.”
The report highlighted examples of good reporting, which included the use of quantitative data on carbon emissions, and setting long term targets in the context of government targets.
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