According to an amendment of the Climate Change Bill, the British government will now require annual reports from quoted companies to include carbon emissions information from sources such as company vehicles, boilers and onsite equipment.

The WWF and Christian Aid were among the organizations that, along with some backbench MPs, pressured the environment minister to include the amendment in the third reading of the bill in the House of Lords. Critics of the amendment say the new standard will be a royal pain for businesses, especially smaller ones and one Conservative representative pointed out that the lack of standard auditing process for carbon will make compliance with the amendment difficult.

However the amendment's supporters claim environmental reporting standards are not currently strong enough and the Companies Act states these business are responsible for including the environmental impacts of their work. They believe the level of reporting should be controlled by the government and it should be mandatory as opposed to voluntary. Approximately 90 per cent of current reporting is adequate, however the remaning 10 per cent is believed to be crucial.

Jon Trickett, a backbench Labour MP who has championed the amendment, added: "Corporations have been allowed to get away with green-washing their annual reports for too long."

» The Independent