British companies are enhancing efforts to tackle their own carbon footprint, according to a new study by carbon market startup Kana Earth. The startups’ research comprises a survey of FTSE 350 companies and the findings confirm that nearly half of respondents expect a dramatic increase in carbon credits purchases.
The results show that 96% of Britain’s FTSE 350 companies have already upped expenditure on carbon credits over the past 24 months.
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47% of them want to increase spending dramatically over the next two years, 42% are planning to increase spending on carbon offsets and carbon credits just slightly over the next 24 months, and 11% expect to keep expenditure the same.
Investments in carbon offsets are increasing as the UK’s companies seek to come in line with Britain’s push to become a carbon-neutral country by 2050.
Additionally, according to Kana Earth’s study, more than one-third of FTSE 350 companies already say their operations are carbon neutral, while 60% say they are well advanced in their efforts to achieve their own net zero goals.
These numbers are encouraging, even though the global economy still has a long way to go before it finds the right pathways and implements them at large-scale that truly could transform it into net zero.
Carbon removal methodologies are one pathway that could achieve the substantial emissions reductions that are needed but they don’t solve the critical problem – how all major economic activities could be sustainable and changed to avoid generating emissions in the first place.
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In the UK, the country made important progress towards climate change mitigation when it pushed mandatory climate reporting for over 1,300 of its largest registered companies and financial institutions. The regulation came into force on the 6th of April 2022.
At COP26 in Glasgow in November 2021, chancellor Rishi Sunak set out plans to require all UK-listed companies, from 2023 onwards, to publish detailed plans outlining the steps they will take to align their businesses with the UK’s green ambitions.
The new requirement applies to listed companies and private firms with more than 500 employees and £500m in annual turnovers and will be overseen by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
According to Rishi Sunak, the new requirements are aimed at ensuring the UK becomes the “first-ever net-zero aligned global financial center”.
