Carbon ready …or not

A survey of Australian business leaders' preparedness for the carbon-constrained economy and the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme

Australian business has an opportunity to play a leading role as the nation joins the world in moving towards a new agreement to mitigate climate change.

As the Federal Government continues to urge the passage of its Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme through the Senate, PwC surveyed 151 large Australian businesses to ask executives what they are doing to prepare for climate change, their motivations for acting and their considerations of the scheme's impact on earnings and in investment decisions.

Our survey found that while climate change is on the radar of Australian businesses, 72.2% of business leaders said the need to comply with new regulations was their main motivation to prepare for the CPRS. Less than a quarter of those surveyed are comprehensively prepared for emissions trading while 22.5% have done nothing at all. This is despite the fact that emissions measurement and reporting is already a legislative requirement for many businesses.

35.1% of businesses surveyed have not factored the CPRS into their forward corporate strategy, indicating a poor understanding of both the potential negative earnings impact as well as the opportunities for carbon offset reduction.