Big UK Firms "Failing to Tackle Climate Change" - Not Even 50% Of FTSE 350 Even Have Climate Plans

[hatrack]

The UK's top companies are failing to face up to climate change, with less than half of the FTSE 350 companies introducing schemes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to a report released today.

The second annual report from the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), a New York-based independent organisation which works with shareholders and corporations to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions, found that only 38% of the companies that responded to its survey have put in place emissions reduction schemes with targets.

The findings of the report have prompted a unlikely coalition of leading environmental agencies, UK companies and cross party MPs to write an open letter to the environment secretary, Hilary Benn, and the business and enterprise secretary, John Hutton, arguing for standardised carbon reporting.

"Current reporting levels are still too low, and what is disclosed is not comparable because of the use of different calculation methods," says the letter. "The lack of transparency … undermines the comparative advantage that should accrue to companies with good carbon reporting and control." Some 50 signatories to the letter include BT, The Co-operative Bank, United Utilities, Friends of the Earth, John Gummer MP and the Local Authority Pension Fund Forum. The signatories call on the government to introduce a "common protocol" that would force companies to report their emissions in "a way that is consistent and comparable".

EDIT

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/oct/09/climatechange.corporatesocialresponsibility