2022 sees the third year that companies are required to comply with the Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting Regulations (SECR).  Following its 2021 thematic review of reporting under the SECR regulations, the FRC continues to monitor energy and carbon disclosures as issues continue to arise around SECR compliance, including failure to include required metrics such as energy consumption, and failure to disclose the methodology used. In its reviews of the accounts of unquoted companies, the FRC found that energy and carbon disclosures required by SECR were omitted, in some cases entirely.  The FRC encourages companies to consider the guidance in the 2021 thematic review for the forthcoming reporting season.  This provides examples of better practice and sets out the FRC's expectations for disclosure.  The FRC expects companies to:

• Present all the required information in a form which is clear, understandable, and easy for users to navigate, using cross-references where relevant information is provided across several parts of the annual report.
• Provide an adequate explanation of the methodologies used to calculate emissions and energy use.
• Provide an explanation or reconciliation where ratios provided cannot be recalculated from, or are apparently inconsistent with, other disclosures in the annual report and accounts.
• Describe the extent of any due diligence or assurance over emissions and energy use metrics.
• Provide an adequate description of energy efficiency initiatives in the current and comparative period, focussing on those ‘principal measures’ with the most significant impact.
• Consider whether any other disclosures, such as Scope 3 emissions, would be helpful to investors or other users.
• Provide clear explanations which help users to understand and compare major commitments, such as ‘net zero emissions’ targets or ‘Paris-aligned’ strategies, including which activities and emissions are included in the scope of these commitments. This may require the disclosure of additional emissions-related information, beyond the minimum required by SECR.

This page includes our collection of news items related to SECR.