CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY REPORTING AND CLIMATE CHANGE IN THE UNITED KINGDOM

Abstract

Corporate sustainability reporting has become an issue of vital importance as globalisation and the impacts of businesses on the environment and society have become more evident. Pressing issues like climate change as a result of man-made activities and other environmental disasters have caused stakeholders, investors, NGOs and governments to demand for more transparency from corporations with the hope that this could lead to a change in the behaviour of corporations towards the environment and the society by causing them to integrate these issues in their day-to-day activities. The focus of this dissertation is to explore the international and national framework for corporate sustainability reporting as it relates to climate change in the United Kingdom and to ascertain their effectiveness. This would be achieved by a study of the provisions constituting hard law and soft law on corporate sustainability reporting as it relates to climate change in the United Kingdom with a view to ascertaining their requirements, a review of academic literature and an assessment of reports from UK corporations to ascertain how corporations in the United Kingdom have complied with these requirements and what actions need to be taken to make them more effective to address climate change sufficiently. The conclusion of this research is that the regulatory framework on sustainability reporting affecting the UK is commendable given its requirements and high compliance by corporations. This research however argues that there are loopholes in the regulatory framework which are the lack of effective monitoring and the absence of the requirement to verify GHG reports compulsorily. It further argues that for the regulatory framework to effectively address climate change, effective monitoring mechanisms both internally and externally should be put in place and verification of GHG reports should be made a mandatory requirement to ensure accuracy of these reports.