All 1,800 British Firms to Report Greenhouse-Gas Emissions

June 21st, 2012 by Joshua S Hill

The British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg announced at the Rio+20 summit on Wednesday that all 1,800 firms listed on the London Stock Exchange’s Main Market will be required to list their greenhouse gas emissions from next April. The move will make Britain the first country to require its companies to include emissions data for their entire organisations in their annual reports.

At a side event at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, Clegg said that the reporting would help corporations and investors identify potential areas of savings that can be made through energy efficiency.

“Counting your business costs while hiding your greenhouse gas emissions is a false economy,” he was quoted as saying in a statement issued by Britain’s environment department.

“British companies need to reduce their harmful emissions for the benefit of the planet, but many back our plans because being energy-efficient makes good business sense, too. It saves companies money on energy bills, improves their reputation with customers and helps them manage their long-term costs, too.”

This is not a spur-of-the-moment decision, as the regulations have been under discussion between government and business for some months now. Introduced at the start of the next financial year in April, the regulations will be reviewed in 2015, and a decision will be made whether the requirement would then be extended to all large companies in 2016.

Source: AFP
Image Source: D1v1d

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Tags: Emissions, greenhouse gas, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, greenhouse gases, Nick Clegg, quickies, reporting, Rio+20, UK, UK business greenhouse gas emissions, UK businesses, UK businesses greenhouse gas emissions, uk greenhouse gas emissions

About the Author

Joshua S Hill I'm a Christian, a nerd, a geek, and I believe that we're pretty quickly directing planet-Earth into hell in a handbasket! I also write for Fantasy Book Review (.co.uk), and can be found writing articles for a variety of other sites. Check me out at about.me for more.

Bill_Woods

The title suggests that there are only 1,800 firms in Britain!

… Fortunately, the article itself says it’s talking about the “1,800 firms listed on the London Stock Exchange’s Main Market”.
http://ronaldbrak.blogspot.com.au/ Ronald Brak

I’ll mention that this is not particularly difficult to do. In general, UK greenhouse gas emissions come from burning fossil fuels and fossil fuels are part of the tax system and so are already measured.
yoshhash

This is awesome, courageous, and long overdue. Congratulations Britain for setting the lead.