Companies: Climate Change

(asked on 28th August 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to ensure that companies (a) produce (i) Paris climate change agreement-aligned and (ii) net-zero business plans and (b) manage other forward-looking climate risks.


Answered by
Kwasi Kwarteng Portrait
Kwasi Kwarteng
This question was answered on 8th September 2020

The UK has led the way in delivering clean growth -growing by 75% while emissions have decreased by 43% between 1990 and 2018 - faster than any other G7 nation. Meeting our net zero target will require us to build on this progress by transforming our economy – our homes, our transport, our industries, how we generate and use energy, and how we use our land. This has to be a shared endeavour between Government, devolved nations, local authorities, business, civil society and the British people – as well as the rest of the world.

We expect all publicly-listed companies and large asset owners to disclose in line with the Task Force for Climate-related Financial Disclosure (TCFD) recommendations by 2022. Businesses implementing the TCFD recommendations will disclose information on the procedures they have in place for Board oversight of climate change and how it is factored into their risk management processes.

We have also established a joint taskforce with the UK regulators to monitor the incorporation of climate financial risk into decision making. This will ensure a coordinated approach on climate-related issues and examine the most effective way to approach disclosure.

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