Climate Change Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 231: 231: Before Clause 70, insert the following new Clause— ““Guidance on reporting (1) The Secretary of State may issue, or cause to be issued by an authorised body, guidance regarding the information concerning a company’s greenhouse gas emissions which should be publicly disclosed by such a company as part of its annual reporting. (2) The guidance may relate to the appropriate content and form of such disclosures and any matter necessary to promote the provision of transparent and comparable data regarding the greenhouse gas emissions of companies. (3) The guidance issued under this section may distinguish between different categories of company according to criteria to be determined by the Secretary of State, such as turnover or market share or number of employees or any other criteria the Secretary of State deems relevant, and may contain different standards for each category of company in respect of the content and form of the disclosures and other matters referred to in subsection (2). (4) Any company which is required to produce a business review under the Companies Act 2006 (c. 46) must report on greenhouse gas emissions having regard to any guidance given under this section and the Secretary of State may provide that compliance with any such guidance will be presumed to constitute compliance with section 417 of that Act in respect of reporting on such emissions. (5) The power to give guidance under this section includes the power to vary or revoke it.”” The noble Baroness said: My Lords, I realise that it is late but this is a very important issue, first raised in Committee by the noble Lord, Lord Whitty. My name was on his amendment and his is on my amendment. This time the amendment has been redrafted to make it more in keeping with the provisions of the Companies Act in terms of the effects on companies of different sizes or natures. I moved some of the amendments to the Companies Bill on the subject of business reporting when it went through this House. I was struck then by how ready UK business was to accept these provisions, recognising that shareholders and consumers saw such reporting as important. They wanted such reporting to be standardised and transparent so that they knew exactly where they stood, not least in relation to their competitors. It was an area in which they were already ahead of the Government. Under that Act certain companies already have to report on their impact on the environment, as well as on other issues which I will not address here. The noble Lord, Lord Whitty, rightly pointed out in Committee that, "““much of the reduction in carbon is going to have to be achieved by commercial private enterprises””.—[Official Report, 30/1/08; col. 733.]" He said that he wished to put in place the kind of provision that ensured there was ““behaviour change”” among managers, decision makers, shareholders and investors so that carbon reduction was seen as relevant to the company’s reputation. The Conservatives did not support this amendment in Committee though I hope they may have shifted their position now. The Minister said that he supported the intention of the amendment but argued that it was premature as it could, in effect, cross with the first reports under the Companies Act which should come out in late 2008 or early 2009. However, he expected that many companies would include information about climate change and other environmental issues in their reports. He said: "““This is going to happen but not in the way and at the speed suggested by the amendments””.—[Official Report, 30/1/08; col. 736.]" We are keen to push this further. The Minister agrees that it is a good idea and that certain companies will need to report on their environmental impact anyway. We state here that the Secretary of State should be able to give guidance on this matter, obviously on a voluntary basis, but that any company that is already required to produce a business review must report within that on greenhouse gas emissions. Such companies might be about to do that anyway. This would make it clear that indeed they should. Although I heard what the Minister said last time about this being premature, I do not think that any of us finds it premature given the scale of the problem we face. It should fit well with what companies are expected to do anyway. This seems to be an opportunity that should not be missed. I beg to move.