Carbon Reporting Model To Meet Future UK Laws

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has launched carbon emissions reporting model to help UK businesses keep abreast of government rules.

The UK government has launched the world’s first legally binding carbon budget, which aims at achieving an 80 percent reduction of carbon emissions by 2050. The Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) law will affect about 5000 large companies, and will come into force in 2010 – and it has been predicted that many companies will not be ready for this.

PwC says its tool might help companies meet CRC rules.The model is based on a fictitious UK listed global technology company, called Typico plc and illustrates the strategy, targets, performance, and benchmarking measures that companies will adopt as mandatory carbon emissions reporting begins for a large number of UK companies.

Paul Rew, Sustainability & Climate Change Assurance partner at PwC said: “Expected reporting guidelines must balance simplicity, so as not to burden business further, by presenting the information in a way that it is valuable and comparable with others. Typico plc sets out a flexible template to help companies develop and define good reporting practices for their business.”

Anticipating the potential requirements of guidelines by bodies including DEFRA, the CBI, and the Climate Disclosure Standards Board, PwC’s Typico plc is designed to provide a format to help companies create their own report, with a summarised version for inclusion in annual report and account statements.

The firm said that, to date, the format and composition of information sustainability strategy published by business has varied widely. But the report demonstrates how reporting can connect financial and non-financial data, to see the value and impact of carbon emissions on a business and its climate change strategy.

Alan McGill, Sustainability and Climate Change Reporting partner at PwC said added: “Information, presented in this context will more accurately reflect the real risks – and opportunities – that climate change presents.”

Although the extent of disclosure will vary according to the nature and size of the company, the Typico example sets out what PwC believes to be good practice for larger companies who will potentially face mandatory reporting of greenhouse gas emissions by 2012.

It also forms part of PwC’s contributions to the work of the CBI Carbon Reporting Group and the international Climate Disclosure Standards Board.