All quiet on the carbon reporting front
The Climate Change Act requires a decision to be made on mandatory carbon reporting by April 2012. Defra published a report at the end of November 2010, highlighting the benefits of carbon reporting, and promising to announce ‘early in 2011’ whether mandatory carbon reporting would in fact be brought in, and if so, how.
It is now April 2011. ‘Early’ 2011, as some would term it, and there is increasing unease that mandatory carbon reporting may not be coming out at all, or if it is, only in a limited form (i.e. applying only to larger companies and setting some cut-off level below which companies are not required to report). All is in fact quiet on the carbon reporting front.
Delay is good, some might say. Following the ‘one in one out’ principle of business regulations instilled by the present leadership, a longer delay may indicate that the government is seeking a suitable piece of regulation to oust in order to bring in mandatory reporting. Or this waiting game could in fact indicate the opposite – mounting pressure from companies attempting to forestall increased regulation could be reducing the willingness of government to introduce regulations in this area.
So what is this the future? Certainly there are companies petitioning for both sides of the argument – some attempting to be green leaders, others pointing out that higher levels of regulation place greater strain on businesses in already difficult times. The government seems keen to consult further on this issue.
We would argue that to put effective reporting guidelines in place by 2012, and to give companies the chance to report against these guidelines, what is needed is clarity in this area, rather than greater vacillation. In our experience, what gets measured gets monitored. Once companies actively start looking into their carbon footprint, it gives them a great base for taking charge of it. Carbon Smart have been petitioning for mandatory carbon reporting. Let’s see what happens next.