The REP Wrap: 46% of FTSE100 tweaked ESG disclosures after publication
Your weekly summary of corporate sustainability news.
Nearly half of FTSE 100 companies rejigged their existing sustainability disclosures this year, according to analysis by Deloitte. 46 firms made prior-year adjustments to their previously reported climate and sustainability metrics, most of which related to their emissions – especially Scope 3 metrics. Almost a third (29%) of the updates were to correct factual errors. 44% were to account for a change in methodology. Steve Farrell, Deloitte’s head of sustainability assurance, said the correction of errors was “notable because prior-year restatements are comparatively rare in the world of financial reporting and indicate a material change to previously reported figures”. He said more updates should be expected as scrutiny on sustainability reporting increased.
The Swedish Government said this week it will scrap a tax on airline tickets from next July, in a bid to support the country’s aviation industry. The tax was introduced back in 2018, and its removal is the latest example of concerns about the competitiveness of European companies resulting in a scaling-back of climate measures.
The European Commission received the final recommendations on how it can make the bloc’s agricultural sector more sustainable this week. The Commission said it would “closely assess the report’s recommendations to establish a new platform gathering actors from across the agri-food sector, civil society and the world of science to keep reflecting on strategies to make agri-food systems more sustainable and resilient”. The EU’s Vision for Agriculture and Food is set to be delivered within the first 100 days of Ursula von der Leyen’s next term as President.
Germany’s Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action has outlined its thinking on how it will align the national Supply Chain Act with the EU’s new Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive. For more on this topic, read REP’s analysis here.
Investors managing $1.4trn have urged companies to get on top of their nature-related disclosures. 26 financial institutions have signed a letter to firms covered by the World Benchmarking Alliance’s assessment of nature, asking them to “urgently assess and disclose their impacts and dependencies on nature, both within their own operations and the upstream and downstream parts of its value chain”.
A German court has ruled that BP Europa SE is no longer allowed to advertise its lubricants and engine oils as “climate neutral” or “certified carbon neutral products” simply because their emissions have been offset. The Hamburg Regional Court supported a lawsuit brought by a German NGO, known as DUH, which argued “consumers are not adequately informed how the alleged climate neutrality is achieved”. While the court rules on the provision of information, DUH also pointed out in its legal arguments that the forest protection project that BP bought credits from had a duration of just 30 years, and therefore couldn’t guarantee the longevity of the carbon storage.
Volvo has become the latest company to row back back on its green plans, scrapping a target to become an all-electric car maker by the end of the decade. The Swedish firm blamed the slow roll-out of charging points and European tariffs for the decision, saying it needed “stronger and more stable government policies to support the transition to electrification”.