Earlier this week, the EPA proposed expanding its greenhouse gas (GHG) observation net by adding additional emissions sources to its mandatory GHG reporting system. If the proposal is enacted the system, which required some 31 industrial sectors to begin tracking and reporting their GHG output earlier this year, would expand to cover oil and natural gas sectors.
The rule also proposes folding an additional layer of reporting into the mix, requiring facilities to disclose their corporate ownership. As environmental concerns become increasingly important in investment decisions, having a clear picture of who is emitting and where will help investors, corporations and government devise smarter plans and policies going forward.
As Mark Cohen pointed out in this July 2009 post, the EPA already includes corporate identifiers in many of its monitoring programs and the measure could be of great use to investors and observers:
Corporate identifiers are important because facility environmental performance varies by the location, size, and financial standing of the parent company. Investors and NGOs are also increasingly interested in corporate-level climate policies and impacts. For example, the Carbon Disclosure Project, Global Reporting Initiative, and budding carbon footprint labeling efforts (See post A Call for Product Carbon Labeling) are dependent upon accurate data to verify corporate sustainability performance.
The EPA currently requires corporate parent identifiers in other reporting programs, such as the Risk Management Plan Rule. This small burden on reporters could reduce redundancy and errors that could lead to contradictory conclusions.
Tiffany Clements is managing editor of Weathervane.
