Carbon Training International

With a global consensus on the need to significantly reduce CO2 emissions over the period to 2050, scrutiny of carbon in business processes will be a major feature of best practice management for all organisations. The carbon content of goods and services will increasingly influence buying decisions.

Business owners and managers will need to rethink the way many business activities are conducted.

The preferred method of driving the necessary CO2 emissions reductions is a cap and trade scheme where aggregate emissions are capped at a level that is consistent with the government’s carbon emissions reduction target or treaty obligations and only this amount of allowable emission units (permits) will be issued. Emission trading of itself does not achieve emissions reductions. Over time lowering the carbon emissions cap will require greater carbon emission reductions by liable companies.

The role of a market based emissions trading scheme is to set a price on carbon resulting in abatement of carbon emissions where the cost of doing so is less than the carbon price.

Putting a price on carbon establishes a market wide value for carbon, and creates both carbon risks and carbon opportunities.

Managing the carbon in business processes thus becomes a critical issue for business owners, investors, managers, suppliers and customers.

As well as the obvious commercial aspects of a price on carbon and the impact of the carbon price on business decisions there are governance issues as well:

• Will the community continue to allow high carbon emitting companies a licence to operate?
• Will financiers and insurers continue to lend on and insure assets with a high carbon impact?
• Will investors continue to support high carbon businesses?

Adopting appropriate strategies to build a robust Carbon Management Response Plan for the business is essential to preserve business value and enable the many opportunities in a low carbon economy to be harvested.