As part of the Climate Change Act the UK Government had a legal obligation, by 6th April 2012, to either table legislation to embody carbon accounting as an obligation within the Companies Act, or alternatively to table a report as to why this was not justified.
We have now found a very brief report from the Govt on this topic. Essentially they are stating that they are unable to make a decision at the moment as they are still evidence gathering. There are rumours that the Government want to scrap the current CRC scheme (Carbon Reductions Commitment) – which is viewed as being onerous on businesses, with a high cost of administration. It may well be that the introduction of mandatory carbon accounting will form part of any proposal to revise or scrap the CRC scheme. One can understand that with the current economic challenges that the last thing the Govt want to announce is a U Turn on CRC. I guess that they may be biding their time before pushing on with this.
The report from Defra, which was quietly published in March of this year is below :
Author: Kevin Misselbrook, Access UK Ltd