Defra consults on mandatory reporting rules

UK companies required to publish their greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions from 2013 will have to include details of accidental emissions and an intensity ratio under proposed legislation

The environment department has unveiled a draft version of regulations that will force companies listed on the London Stock Exchange to disclose the amount of GHGs produced by their operations each year.

The Greenhouse Gas Emissions (Directors’ Reports) Regulations will, from April 2013, require companies to publish in a directors’ report the amount of GHG emissions generated through the burning of fuels at its sites; the use of transport, machinery or equipment owned by the company; and the firm’s consumption of electricity, heating and cooling - essentially their scope 1 and 2 emissions.

Defra’s draft regulations also include a requirement that companies must report the “leakage or other escape” of emissions either directly or indirectly from its activities, and that it must also include an intensity ratio, expressing the company’s emissions in relation to something quantifiable, such as a unit of manufacturing output or a share of the company.

Under the proposed regulations the government makes clear that companies will have to include information from its first annual report in future reports, along with any subsequent revisions to the data, enabling comparisons on performance to be made more easily.

The regulations don’t, however, enforce a particular methodology for calculating emissions, requiring instead that firms state their chosen method in the report.

Defra’s consultation is asking for feedback on the draft regulations and whether they should come into force, as proposed, for reporting years ending after 6 April 2013, or be timed to come into effect at the same time as new BIS regulations changing narrative reporting framework, which are likely to be for reporting years ending after 1 October 2013.

The consultation will close on 17 October.