More public scrutiny of company emissions

Public scrutiny of Australian companies' emissions is set to increase under a new voluntary scheme.

The Corporate Emissions Reduction Transparency report will invite businesses to detail information including their net emissions and progress towards targets.

As the Liberal-National coalition wrangles to finalise a target of net zero emissions by 2050, Energy Minister Angus Taylor wants climate-conscious businesses to back up their rhetoric.

"Companies that talk a big game need to report on it. They need to be transparent about it, they need to be clear," Mr Taylor told 4BC radio on Tuesday.

He pointed to the federal government's quarterly emissions reports.

"That applies as much at the business level, the corporate level, as it does (to the) political and governmental level," Mr Taylor said.

"If they say, 'Look, we're going to reduce our emissions by X per cent over 10 or 20 years', then do what we do as a government."

Companies that meet thresholds under the the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting scheme will be able to opt-in to the pilot scheme from late this year.

The results will be published in the first half of 2022.

Clean Energy Regulator chair David Parker said while a growing number of companies were making welcome commitments to reduce their emissions and use renewable electricity, there was an increasing need for greater transparency.

"In designing the CERT report, we have sought to balance providing participating companies with the flexibility to properly tell their emissions reduction story, while ensuring a degree of consistency and comparability in how the data is presented," he said.

The CER is seeking feedback from companies on the practical application of the CERT report guidelines.