Top FTSE companies fail to account for their carbon emissions
Only a minority of FTSE 350 companies have established greenhouse gas reduction schemes and targets
UK’s top companies are failing to act on climate change as less than half of
the FTSE 350 companies have introduced schemes to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions, according to a newly released report.
The second annual report from the
Carbon Disclosure Project
(CDP), a New York-based independent organisation which works with shareholders
and corporations to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions, found only 38% of
the companies responding to its survey had established reduction schemes with
targets for carbon emissions, now a financially material commodity with an
economic and financial value.
The report findings have prompted a coalition of leading environmental
agencies, UK companies and cross party MPs to write an open letter to Hilary
Benn, the environment secretary, and John Hutton, the business and enterprise
secretary, calling for standardised carbon reporting.
Adrian Wilkes, chairman of the
Aldersgate
Group, which wrote the letter, said the lack of transparency obscured the
UK’s true contribution to carbon emissions and would impede the setting of
accurate carbon targets and budgets in the proposed climate change bill.
Further reading:
Investors must ‘push for green reporting
Carbon offsets must be monitored properly
