Is the Climate Change Bill unenforceable without agreed auditing standards?

The amended Climate Change Bill, which is currently going through the House of Commons, will mean quoted companies having to report on carbon emissions in their annual reports. If this is to go on the statute books as expected this summer, it raises the question “why now?”.

With no framework in place for auditing standards surely this is putting the cart before the horse? The Climate Change Bill will be unenforceable if there isn’t rapid agreement. Don’t get me wrong, in principle I’m all in favour of the Bill - but let’s get our house in order first.

The software industry needs the commitment from Government and industry bodies to set the framework – and it needs to be set sooner rather than later. By providing clear guidelines, software developers will be able to play their part in developing the solutions and technologies that enable organisations to measure and report on their carbon emissions. A clear definition of what is – and isn’t – to be included also needs outlining, in the same sense that we have a structure for financial reporting.

Standardisation will also lift the burden off organisations having to decide how they should measure their carbon emissions. This in turn should also help the supply chain of large corporates - often small or medium-sized businesses without resources they can dedicate to this task. So tougher climate reporting is a great idea – but it would be good idea to know exactly what needs to be reported on first.

Kevin Misselbrook
Customer Services Director

Comments

[Jeremy Labram]

Emissions measurement and reporting is all virtual. Virtually no one has meters sited above their operation measuring and recording how much greenhouse gas they are producing. Carbon footprinting etc. is all based upon modelling and assumptions and the calculations are unlikely to be capable of corroboration.

The only value I see in it is giving a company a snapshot of their footprint from which they can look for obvious savings in energy, irrespective of how green a source it is bought from. With so called green energy in short supply, any energy savings have a positive impact to the world, unlike offsetting which is no better than Lutheran indulgences. As energy gets more expensive it is very prudent to reduce its use, year on year; year after year. That's as far as the carbon footprint work needs to go.

If you were to turn to my last post (#8) on my blog (http://bpvocc.blogspot.com) you could also see other areas, mainly in raw material reduction, reuse of materials, and energy recovery from waste streams, in which company improvements could be made, which again lead to bottom line savings.

So rather than simply being seen to comply with ill-founded regulation, I would recommend companies reduce consumption by minimising excess on their inputs and reusing waste. Those companies providing accounting software to comply with the regulation could offer their clients so much more by enabling them to see how to take cost directly from the bottom line.