Where are we now?
12,000 of the largest UK businesses, including all quoted companies and the largest unquoted entities, are required to disclose details of worldwide emissions (quoted companies) and UK emissions (unquoted entities).
No-one else is required to disclose any such details, although a number of businesses choose to do so voluntarily.
Where are quoted businesses going in future?
I don’t need my crystal ball for this, because the Taskforce on Corporate Financial Disclosures has already told us. There is to be a greatly enhanced financial disclosure regime, requiring a report covering governance, strategy, risk management and metrics and targets – the latter to include a new requirement to report on “appropriate Scope 3 emissions” aka indirect emissions by others which are associated with your business.
So, what about the rest of us?
This is where the crystal ball comes out. To help you judge the reliability of this, I am still working because I have not won a major Lottery, but then given that I don’t enter any, it would be very odd if I did.
Whilst the existing regime for quoted companies is in place, government is highly unlikely to extend it to SMEs, who would quite legitimately argue that they are not resourced to match the level of quoted company disclosures.
But what about when the quoted company regime changes so dramatically in line with the TCFR recommendations? If you are the government, committed to Net Zero by 2050 but with no reliable way of proving that you have achieved it, at some point you are going to want at least some emissions and energy consumption data from all UK businesses.
What better time to introduce such a requirement than when you are greatly enhancing the disclosure required by quoted companies?
In case it does, and I genuinely believe it will, think about being an early adopter by using our green bookkeeping system, which fully meets the current disclosure requirements for larger unquoted entities, which is by far the most likely regime to be introduced for SMEs, covering Scope 1 (direct emissions) and Scope 2 (energy usage) with a hint of Scope 3.
Or you can ask your existing accountant about their green bookkeeping system, but don’t hold out too much hope of a positive response.
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