5.02 Market-based Scope 2 emissions are marked as assured, but the assurance provider's list of assured items has an empty line where that item stood last year
UK Company B · a UK-listed technology and logistics group · Regulator-style question
In brief
The emissions table in the Sustainability Report marks market-based Scope 2 emissions of [n] tCO2e with the triangle that denotes limited assurance by the sustainability assurance provider. The provider's report lists the assured items; its third bullet, where the 2024 report listed 'Total Scope 2 GHG Emissions (market-based)', is empty. Readers cannot tell from the report whether the [n] figure was within the assured scope.
The evidence, as filed
Annual Report 2024, page 245 · Prior year: The 2024 assurance report named market-based Scope 2 as the third assured item.
Further pages withheld to protect the company’s identity (two): Annual Report 2025, page 278; Annual Report 2025, page 279. Their wording or layout could lead back to the company even with names and figures masked; the evidence list below records what each page shows.
Names, figures, dates, logos and any wording that could be searched back to the company are boxed out in grey; the point is highlighted in yellow.
What the report shows, and what the rule requires
| What the annual report shows | What the rule requires |
|---|---|
| What the annual report shows Emissions table: 'Market-based [n]△'. Assurance report: the third bullet of the Selected Information list is blank; market-based Scope 2 appears only inside the combined Scope 1 + 2 intensity item. | What the rule requires The assurance report's list names every item the report marks with the assurance triangle, or the triangle is removed from items outside the scope. |
What we checked: The assurance report's Selected Information list (both years), the emissions table and its footnotes, and the search of the whole report for the item's name.
Why it matters
A metric carrying the assurance mark may not be covered by the assurance report the mark refers to, or the report as printed does not show that it is.
Exposure
A question on the presentation of voluntary assurance; no statutory requirement for assurance of these metrics applies.
Our workings
the emissions table marks market-based Scope 2 of [n] tCO2e with the triangle, and its footnote 1 says triangle-marked metrics are subject to limited assurance by the provider, referring to pages 278-279. The provider's Selected Information list on page 278 runs: total Scope 1; total Scope 2 (location-based); an empty bullet; then the two Scope 1 + 2 intensity measures. In the 2024 report the third item was 'Total Scope 2 GHG Emissions (market-based)'.
The provider's conclusion is given only on 'the Selected Information', so the printed list defines what it covers. Only the Company and the provider can say which reading is right.
Management’s best defence, and our reply
The provider assured the market-based Scope 1 + 2 intensity measure, which cannot be tested without testing market-based Scope 2, and the empty bullet is a typesetting slip; the provider's signed engagement letter governs the scope, not the printed bullet. The table's triangle is therefore accurate. That is a plausible explanation, but the printed list is what readers rely on, and on its face it does not name the item, so this is put as a question.
The fix
- Restore the missing line ('Total Scope 2 GHG emissions (market-based) [Metric tonnes CO2e]') in the assurance report as published, or remove the triangle from the [n] figure if it was outside the scope.
Question for the company
Was market-based Scope 2 ([n] tCO2e) within the assurance provider's Selected Information for 2025, and if so, what text belongs in the empty third bullet of the list on page 278?
Evidence relied on
| # | What it shows | Type | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Market-based Scope 2 marked as assured | Document | Annual Report 2025, page 60 |
| 2 | What the triangle means | Document | Annual Report 2025, page 60 |
| 3 | The item before the empty bullet | Document | Annual Report 2025, page 278 |
| 4 | The conclusion is limited to the listed Selected Information | Document | Annual Report 2025, page 279 |
Absence check
- Document
- Annual Report 2025
- Where it would appear
- Total Scope 2 GHG emissions (location-based) [Metric tonnes CO2e]
- What is missing
- market-based Scope 2 emissions as a named item of the assured Selected Information (the bullet is empty)
- Pages looked at
- p.278-279 (assurance report), p.60 (emissions table)
- Result
- The first three terms have no hits anywhere in the report. 'Scope 2 emissions (market' hits p.60 (the total Scope 1 and Scope 2 market-based line of the emissions table) and p.274 (the Five-Year Summary row), neither of which is the assurance report's list.
Prepared by Pramanex from the company’s published annual reports, without the company’s involvement, to show how an annual report review reads. The company is not named, and nothing on this page is a statement about any identifiable company. Observations are not an audit, review or other assurance engagement, and not legal advice. A regulator-style question is a question, not a conclusion.
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