Business: Carbon Emissions

(asked on 14th December 2021) - View Source

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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the risks of omitting Scope 3 emissions from Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures reporting; and what plans they have to mandate Scope 3 emissions reporting for UK businesses.


Answered by
Lord Callanan Portrait
Lord Callanan
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
This question was answered on 20th December 2021

In October 2021, the Government laid regulations to require climate-related financial disclosures from certain UK-registered companies. The regulations do not duplicate pre-existing greenhouse gas emission disclosure requirements under Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting (SECR), which require large or quoted UK companies and large Limited Liability Partnerships to make disclosures on energy use and emissions in their Annual Reports. Scope 3 emissions reporting is not currently required by either set of regulations.

The discussion around better alignment between SECR and the TCFD recommendations, and the potential to require Scope 3 disclosures formed a part of our UK Government consultation on mandatory climate-related financial disclosures, which concluded in May 2021. Any changes to the SECR regime to require scope 3 disclosures will require a separate consultation process, and would need to take into account the costs and benefits to business of mandatory scope 3 reporting. Any changes would also need to take account of the introduction of the proposed UK Sustainability Disclosures Requirements (SDR) Regime, as set out in Greening Finance: A Roadmap to Sustainable Investment published on 18th October 2021; and the requirements introduced in the June 2021 Procurement Policy Note that require mandatory disclosures of scope 1, scope 2 and a subset of Scope 3 emissions in carbon reduction plans when bidding for major government contracts.

Following COP26, our main ask of business is to join the UN’s Race to Zero. Companies with this kitemark commit to cutting emissions across all three scopes in line with a 1.5C pathway, with clear reporting and transparency mechanisms.

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