Smaller enterprises want carbon emission clarity
I made the statement in my newsletter this week that if small to medium business is left out of the emission trading scheme and the big emitters are exempted there is no chance of anything other than failure to meet even the ridiculously low emission targets. If the emission trading scheme does not result in emission reduction it is just greenwash. I also firmly believe that we should reduce our carbon footprint as much as possible before we start to use carbon offsets.
For those who missed it, here is the link to the newsletter http://www.enviro-action.com/news/is_australia_s_emission_trading_system_greenwash_.html
Interestingly comments from the Financial Review made similar comments.
Small to medium-size enterprises that want to reduce their carbon emissions are being hampered by the lack of a voluntary standard.
Under the existing national greenhouse and energy reporting system, between 700 and 900 mainly large companies have to publicly report on their greenhouse emissions using a technical guideline of about 300 pages.
But those organisations not covered by mandatory reporting are increasingly being asked by their customers about their carbon emissions.
There is nothing in place for small to medium business and I really don’t see most of them sitting down to read a 300 page technical guideline! A word beginning with b and ending with s comes to mind for this approach.
The Department of Climate Change has released a discussion paper aimed at establishing a national carbon offset standard for the purposes of becoming carbon neutral.
Nobody seems to be thinking about reducing carbon first before they start to offset.
Supply chain emissions fall within the scope three category in international and local guidelines. While they are not required to be reported by the customer of the goods and services under mandatory schemes such as the existing National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting System, they are essential for companies wishing to calculate the entire carbon footprint.
It seems as though someone has actually noticed the high cost of collection of this data. This was the first thing that occurred to me when the scheme was first mooted.
SMEs that lack the resources of big companies want a plain English approach to reporting their emissions which would provide transparent, accurate information in a standardised format that would satisfy their customers.
“There is nothing out there at the moment. Organisations can pick parts of their greenhouse emissions footprint and talk about that in isolation to the rest. And they don’t have to qualify how they do it.
“A prime example is a business saying the product or services are carbon neutral without that being verified in any way. There is a lack of consistency which makes it difficult to compare the claims of companies.”
There are calls for a set of uniform voluntary national emissions reporting standards to guide the development of emissions reporting and accelerate reduction of emissions by companies lying outside mandatory reporting regimes.
In a related development, the Institute of Chartered Accountants welcomed the release of a guidance paper issued by the Dept of Climate Change last month on the assessment and audit process for activities that may be eligible for assistance as emissions-intensive trade-exposed activities under the carbon pollution reduction scheme (CRPS).
It also included the audit and assurance requirements for the data that is to be audited to the same level as financial statements.
Technorati Tags: Carbon emissions, Carbon offset, Climate change, Emission targets, Emission Trading, Greenhouse and energy reporting, reducing carbon, Reduce our carbon footprint
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