New UK Reporting Framework: Is Your Company Exposed?
In 2016 the UK government released its plans to reform the energy efficiency tax and reporting landscape as the current range of overlapping policies are overly complex, adding burden to businesses. The UK government announced it would consult on a Simplified Energy and Carbon Reporting (SECR) framework for introduction by 2019 alongside the closure of the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme, absorbing the price signal into the Climate Change Levy in the same year.
A consultation was launched in 2017 on SECR alongside the Clean Growth Strategy. On July 18th, 2018, responses from participants in the consultation and the government were published. The scope and additional vital reporting elements of the new framework became clear from the publication, with all large organizations in the UK likely to be affected.
The News:
The purpose of this framework is to enable businesses and industry to improve energy efficiency by at least 20 percent by 2030. In order to achieve this, the proposed framework requires large companies with a minimum of 40,000 kWh of electricity usage annually to disclose information about Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions and methodology in their Annual Reports. These requirements will go into effect in 2019 once the legislation is confirmed. This leaves approximately 11,900 companies in the UK exposed to this new rule.
Our Recommendations:
As further details are published we will be in touch and post an update to this announcement. Rest assured that any legislation that impacts your operations significantly will be brought to your immediate attention. This first round of draft legislation has a few more ’tweaks’ before being published – when it is written into law, we will share more on implications for your company and further recommendations regarding the best route to compliance.