An important part of this debate has been over
how to account for GHG emissions of leased assets. In the UK, this
has formed part of the Climate Change Act 2008 in which, in its
original form published in October 2009, lessors were required to
account for these emissions.
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In a section on how businesses should account
for GHG emissions, the proposals stated lessees should account for
emissions by making a record of them, but only if the assets were
leased under a finance lease agreement. However, emissions
associated with assets on operating leases had to be accounted for
by lessors.
As a result, the Finance & Leasing
Association heavily lobbied the UK’s Department for Environment,
Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) to change the wording of the
legislation. Last month, it emerged that the FLA had won its
campaign.
“We have persuaded DEFRA that it would be
unreasonable for lessors to have to keep track of all of the
equipment that they lease, and of the use of it,” an FLA
spokesperson said, adding that asking lessors to do so would have
involved “costly and unnecessary duplication of work”.
According to the FLA, it seems unlikely that
the new guidance will create any great burdens for lessees either,
now that it is being amended – although it may appear “complicated”
at first .
DEFRA officials will be working with the
association later this year to make the next version of the
guidance “easier to follow”.
Before DEFRA published the guidance, some
UK-based organisations reported emission data for schemes such as
the EU Emissions Trading System.
Antonio Fabrizio
