Finance industry leads EU carbon rankings

Banks, insurance companies and investment firms are leading the way in reporting and cutting greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions, according to new figures from the Environment Investment Organisation (EIO).

UK insurance giant Aviva topped the EIO’s first ET Europe 300 Carbon Ranking as the least carbon-intensive of Europe’s biggest businesses, followed by fellow financial services firms Aegon NV and Banco Popular Espanol.

The EIO rates companies according to the amount of GHG emissions produced to create their annual turnover and the availability of information on those emissions.

The aim of the list is to put pressure on businesses to share comprehensive and verified data on GHG emissions, with the EIO weighting the rankings in favour of those that do.

In compiling the list, EIO found that just 43% of Europe’s 300 largest businesses publish independently validated data on their scope 1 and 2 emissions, as defined in the GHG Protocol, and 13% share no data on their emissions at all.

“Despite most companies producing corporate social responsibility reports, there remains a remarkable lack of transparency and clarity in GHG emissions reporting,” said Sam Gill, operational director at EIO.

Joanna Lee, chief partnerships officer at the Carbon Disclosure Project, agrees that assurance of emissions data is important.

“We have ranked companies in terms of disclosure for several years, through our Leadership Index, and it has proved a very effective tool in improving company reporting and in raising awareness of the importance of carbon management,” she said.